Gender perspective on life insurance demand in Ghana

Purpose - Against the background that Ghanaians seldom purchase insurance policies, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of life insurance uptake among male and female household heads in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach - The study employs data on 775 male and 233 female household heads from the sixth round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey. Adjusted Wald test statistics and logistic regressions are employed for the empirical estimations. Findings - Results from the adjusted Wald test show that the sampled male household heads significantly differ from their female counterparts in terms of the selected socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Though ill health status, higher wealth, being self-employed or in wage or salaried employment and residing in either of the three northern regions (upper east, upper west and northern regions) in Ghana broadly affect the demand for life insurance among both male and female heads, other factors are peculiar to either parties. Particularly, whereas female heads who are married and those with more dependants have a higher propensity of purchasing life insurance policies, their male counterparts with higher education are more likely to buy life insurance policies. Research limitations/implications - The paper adds to the paucity of cross-sectional studies on life insurance demand in Africa. Practical implications - Based on the explored determinants, insurers could better regulate the purchase of their products by taking into consideration the gender differences to maximize their sales and enhance economic growth and development. Originality/value - This paper explores the gender dynamics in the determinants of life insurance demand in a developing country, Ghana. Besides, findings from related literature are reported to be mixed. Though the current paper is not wholly nationally representative, it utilizes data from across all the ten administrative regions of Ghana. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior study has been conducted in this manner.