IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jitecd/v34y2025i8p1959-1983.html

Examining the effect of insurance development on economic complexity: Evidence from Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Meytang Cedric
  • Djeunankan Ronald

Abstract

This paper attempts to analyse the effect of insurance development on sophistication measured by the economic complexity index. Empirical analyses are carried out on a sample of 36 African countries over the period 2003-2019. In order to limit potential endogeneity biases, we run the two-step system Generalized Method of Moments and the Lewbel estimator. Empirical results, robust to a set of sensitivity analyses, show that insurance development can foster economic complexity in Africa. Moreover, when distinguishing between life and non-life insurance, empirical results remain globally unchanged, with a greater effect of non-life insurance as compared to that of life insurance. Furthermore, the mediation analysis enabled us to identify innovations and investments as some transmission channels through which insurance development may affect economic complexity in Africa. Thus, African leaders would do well to improve the regulation of the insurance business to enable it to participate effectively in financing the economy and managing risks, thereby stimulating economic complexity.

Suggested Citation

  • Meytang Cedric & Djeunankan Ronald, 2025. "Examining the effect of insurance development on economic complexity: Evidence from Africa," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(8), pages 1959-1983, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jitecd:v:34:y:2025:i:8:p:1959-1983
    DOI: 10.1080/09638199.2024.2396938
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09638199.2024.2396938
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09638199.2024.2396938?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    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:taf:jitecd:v:34:y:2025:i:8:p:1959-1983. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RJTE20 .

    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.