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Economic, Demographic, and Institutional Determinants of Life Insurance Consumption across Countries

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Author Info

  • Thorsten Beck
  • Ian Webb

Abstract

Life insurance has become an increasingly important part of the financial sector over the past 40 years, providing a range of financial services for consumers and becoming a major source of investment in the capital market. But what drives the large variation in life insurance consumption across countries remains unclear. Using a panel with data aggregated at different frequencies for 68 economies in 1961--2000, this article finds that economic indicators--such as inflation, income per capita, and banking sector development--and religious and institutional indicators are the most robust predictors of the use of life insurance. Education, life expectancy, the young dependency ratio, and the size of the social security system appear to have no robust association with life insurance consumption. The results highlight the importance of price stability and banking sector development in fully realizing the savings and investment functions of life insurance in an economy. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by World Bank Group in its journal The World Bank Economic Review.

Volume (Year): 17 (2003)
Issue (Month): 1 (June)
Pages: 51-88

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Handle: RePEc:oup:wbecrv:v:17:y:2003:i:1:p:51-88

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References

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  1. Lewis, Frank D, 1989. "Dependents and the Demand for Life Insurance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 452-67, June.
  2. Beenstock, Michael & Dickinson, Gerry & Khajuria, Sajay, 1986. "The determination of life premiums: An international cross-section analysis 1970-1981," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 261-270, October.
  3. Catalan, Mario & Impavido, Gregorio & Musalem, Alberto R., 2000. "Contractual savings or stock market development - Which leads?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2421, The World Bank.
  4. Impavido, Gregorio & Musalem, Alberto R., 2000. "Contractual savings, stock, and asset markets," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2490, The World Bank.
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Cited by:
  1. Giovanni Millo & Gaetano Carmeci, 2011. "Non-life insurance consumption in Italy: a sub-regional panel data analysis," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 273-298, September.
  2. Philip Chimobi Omoke, 2011. "Insurance Market Activity and Economic Growth: Evidence from Nigeria," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 1(4), pages 245-253, December.
  3. Chui, Andy C.W. & Kwok, Chuck C.Y., 2009. "Cultural practices and life insurance consumption: An international analysis using GLOBE scores," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 273-290, October.
  4. Beck , Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Levine, Ross, 2009. "Financial institutions and markets across countries and over time - data and analysis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4943, The World Bank.
  5. Subir Sen, 2008. "An Analysis of Life Insurance Demand Determinants for Selected Asian Economies and India," Finance Working Papers 22512, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
  6. J. François Outreville, 2011. "The relationship between insurance growth and economic development - 80 empirical papers for a review of the literature," ICER Working Papers 12-2011, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.

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