IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/diw/diwwpp/dp1194.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Perceptions of (Micro)Insurance in Southern Ghana: The Role of Information and Peer Effects

Author

Listed:
  • Lena Giesbert
  • Susan Steiner

Abstract

This article investigates the understandings and perceptions of (micro)insurance among low-income people in southern Ghana, using evidence from four focus group discussions. It analyzes how the focus group participants think about various types of insurance - among them a micro life insurance product - and how their negative and/or positive evaluations have come about. The evidence indicates that (micro)insurance is mostly positively perceived by the participants of the focus group discussions. However, it is also found that many people's image of insurance is based on incomplete (and sometimes erroneous) information, or even on intuition. In addition, the experiences or opinions of peers turn out to be critical in shaping an individual's perception of insurance. These two factors potentially have a contagious effect, which can lead to unreasonably positive or overly negative ideas about (micro)insurance. Such ideas, in turn, can become detrimental to the further distribution of microinsurance.

Suggested Citation

  • Lena Giesbert & Susan Steiner, 2012. "Perceptions of (Micro)Insurance in Southern Ghana: The Role of Information and Peer Effects," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1194, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1194
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.394251.de/dp1194.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Doss, Cheryl R., 1996. "Do Households Fully Share Risk? Evidence From Ghana," Staff Papers 13439, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    2. Gin, Xavier & Yang, Dean, 2009. "Insurance, credit, and technology adoption: Field experimental evidencefrom Malawi," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 1-11, May.
    3. Shawn Cole & Xavier Gine & Jeremy Tobacman & Petia Topalova & Robert Townsend & James Vickery, 2013. "Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 104-135, January.
    4. Navajas, Sergio & Schreiner, Mark & Meyer, Richard L. & Gonzalez-vega, Claudio & Rodriguez-meza, Jorge, 2000. "Microcredit and the Poorest of the Poor: Theory and Evidence from Bolivia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 333-346, February.
    5. repec:ilo:ilowps:361273 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Monique Cohen & Jennefer Sebstad, 2005. "Reducing vulnerability: the demand for microinsurance," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 397-474.
    7. Hongbin Cai & Yuyu Chen & Hanming Fang & Li-An Zhou, 2009. "Microinsurance, Trust and Economic Development: Evidence from a Randomized Natural Field Experiment," NBER Working Papers 15396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Stefan Dercon, 2002. "Income Risk, Coping Strategies, and Safety Nets," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank Group, vol. 17(2), pages 141-166, September.
    9. repec:cup:judgdm:v:3:y:2008:i::p:1-4 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Jacqueline Vanderpuye-Orgle & Christopher Barrett, 2009. "Risk Management and Social Visibility in Ghana," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 21(1), pages 5-35.
    11. Tesliuc, Emil D. & Lindert, Kathy, 2004. "Risk and vulnerability in Guatemala: a quantitative and qualitative assessment," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 30154, The World Bank.
    12. Wang, H. Holly & Rosenman, Robert, 2007. "Perceived need and actual demand for health insurance among rural Chinese residents," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 373-388.
    13. Susan Steiner & Lena Giesbert, 2010. "Microinsurance: A Large Untapped Market," Weekly Report, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 6(33), pages 245-249.
    14. Monique Cohen & Michael J. Mccord & Jennefer Sebstad, 2005. "Reducing vulnerability: demand for and supply of microinsurance in East Africa," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 319-325.
    15. Xavier Giné & Robert Townsend & James Vickery, 2008. "Patterns of Rainfall Insurance Participation in Rural India," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(3), pages 539-566, October.
    16. Stefan Dercon (QEH), Tessa Bold, Cesar Calvo, "undated". "Insurance for the Poor?," QEH Working Papers qehwps125, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    17. Rebecca L. Thornton & Laurel E. Hatt & Erica M. Field & Mursaleena Islam & Freddy Solís Diaz & Martha Azucena González, 2010. "Social security health insurance for the informal sector in Nicaragua: a randomized evaluation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(S1), pages 181-206, September.
    18. Lena Giesbert & Susan Steiner & Mirko Bendig, 2011. "Participation in Micro Life Insurance and the Use of Other Financial Services in Ghana," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 78(1), pages 7-35, March.
    19. Michael J. McCord & Sylvia Osinde, 2005. "Reducing vulnerability: the supply of health microinsurance in East Africa," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 327-381.
    20. Manje, Lemmy. & Churchill, Craig Farren,, 2002. "The demand for risk-managing financial services in low-income communities : evidence from Zambia," ILO Working Papers 993612733402676, International Labour Organization.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tao Li & Lihong Chen & Xiaoxu Li & Sha Li & Haibing Chen & Hao Ji, 2021. "The Impact of Cost-of-Production Insurance on Input Expense of Fruit Growing in Ecologically Vulnerable Areas: Evidence from Shaanxi Province of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Amos Gitau Njuguna & Abigael Arunga, 2013. "Risk Management Practices: A Survey of Micro-Insurance Service Providers in Kenya," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 4(1), pages 132-150, January.
    3. Giesbert, Lena, 2012. "Subjective Risk and Participation in Micro Life Insurance in Ghana," GIGA Working Papers 210, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    4. Mrs. Amrutha Varshini V & Prof. B.H.Suresh, 2013. "A Study on Performance of Life Micro Insurance in Mysore City," Indian Journal of Commerce and Management Studies, Educational Research Multimedia & Publications,India, vol. 4(3), pages 40-45, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lena Giesbert & Susan Steiner, 2015. "Client Perceptions of the Value of Microinsurance: Evidence from Southern Ghana," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 15-35, January.
    2. Arun, Thankom & Bendig, Mirko & Arun, Shoba, 2012. "Bequest Motives and Determinants of Micro Life Insurance in Sri Lanka," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1700-1711.
    3. Zulekha Ndurukia & Agnes W. Njeru & Esther Waiganjo, 2017. "Factors Influencing Demand for Micro Insurance Services in the Insurance Industry in Kenya," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7(7), pages 232-259, July.
    4. Platteau, Jean-Philippe & De Bock, Ombeline & Gelade, Wouter, 2017. "The Demand for Microinsurance: A Literature Review," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 139-156.
    5. Renuka Sane & Susan Thomas, 2020. "From Participation To Repurchase: Low Income Households And Micro‐insurance," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 87(3), pages 783-814, September.
    6. Mohammed Ahmar Uddin, 2017. "Microinsurance in India: Insurance literacy and demand," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center, vol. 13(2), pages 182-191, May.
    7. Biener, Christian, 2013. "Pricing in Microinsurance Markets," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 132-144.
    8. Martin Eling & Shailee Pradhan & Joan T Schmit, 2014. "The Determinants of Microinsurance Demand," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 39(2), pages 224-263, April.
    9. Mirko Bendig & Thankom Arun, 2011. "Microfinancial Services And Risk Management: Evidences From Sri Lanka," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 36(4), pages 97-126, December.
    10. Uddin, Mohammed Ahmar, 2017. "Microinsurance in India: Insurance literacy and demand," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center (PRADEC), vol. 13(2).
    11. Shawn Cole & Xavier Giné & James Vickery, 2017. "How Does Risk Management Influence Production Decisions? Evidence from a Field Experiment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(6), pages 1935-1970.
    12. BONAN Jacopo & DAGNELIE Olivier & LEMAY-BOUCHER Philippe & TENIKUE Michel, 2012. "Is it all about Money? A Randomized Evaluations of the Impact of Insurance Literacy and Marketing Treatments on the Demand for Health Microinsurance in Senegal," LISER Working Paper Series 2012-03, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    13. Wouter Zant, 2023. "How costly is using livestock as a savings device?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(1), pages 77-110, February.
    14. Antoine Leblois & Philippe Quirion, 2013. "Agricultural insurances based on meteorological indices: realizations, methods and research challenges," Post-Print hal-00656778, HAL.
    15. Ibanez, Marcela & Dietrich, Stephan, 2015. "Impact of Weather Insurance on Small Scale Farmers: A Natural Experiment," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112887, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    16. Fiala, Oliver & Wende, Danny, 2016. "The impact of trust, risk and disaster exposure on microinsurance demand: Results of a DCE analysis in Cambodia," Dresden Discussion Paper Series in Economics 01/16, Technische Universität Dresden, Faculty of Business and Economics, Department of Economics.
    17. Fahad, Shah & Wang, Jing & Hu, Guangyin & Wang, Hui & Yang, Xiaoying & Shah, Ashfaq Ahmad & Huong, Nguyen Thi Lan & Bilal, Arshad, 2018. "Empirical analysis of factors influencing farmers crop insurance decisions in Pakistan: Evidence from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 459-467.
    18. Bendig, Mirko & Arun, Thankom Gopinath, 2011. "Enrolment in Micro Life and Health Insurance: Evidences from Sri Lanka," IZA Discussion Papers 5427, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Aurélien Baillon & Owen O'Donnell & Stella Quimbo & Kim van Wilgenburg, 2022. "Do time preferences explain low health insurance take‐up?," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(4), pages 951-983, December.
    20. Ruth Hill & Angelino Viceisza, 2012. "A field experiment on the impact of weather shocks and insurance on risky investment," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 15(2), pages 341-371, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Microinsurance; risk management; perception; Ghana; focus groups;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1194. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bibliothek (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/diwbede.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.