IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/101520.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Financial Access, Governance and Insurance Sector Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Asongu, Simplice
  • Odhiambo, Nicholas

Abstract

Purpose –This study investigates the role of financial access in moderating the effect of governance on insurance consumption in 42 Sub-Saharan African countries using data for the period 2004-2014. Design/methodology/approach – Two life insurance indicators are used, notably: life insurance and non-life insurance. Six governance measurements are also used, namely: political stability, “voice & accountability”, government effectiveness, regulation quality, corruption-control and the rule of law. The empirical evidence is based on the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) and Least Squares Dummy Variable Corrected (LSDVC) estimators. Findings –Estimations from the LSDVC are not significant while the following main findings are established from the GMM. First, financial access promotes life insurance through channels of political stability, “voice & accountability”, government effectiveness, the rule of law and corruption-control. Second, financial access also stimulates non-life insurance via governance mechanisms of political stability, “voice & accountability”, government effectiveness, regulation quality, the rule of law and corruption-control. Originality/value – This research complements the sparse literature on insurance promotion in Africa by engaging the hitherto unexplored role of financial access through governance channels.

Suggested Citation

  • Asongu, Simplice & Odhiambo, Nicholas, 2019. "Financial Access, Governance and Insurance Sector Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," MPRA Paper 101520, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:101520
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/101520/1/MPRA_paper_101520.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vanessa S. Tchamyou & Simplice A. Asongu, 2017. "Information Sharing and Financial Sector Development in Africa," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 24-49, January.
    2. Meniago, Christelle & Asongu, Simplice A., 2018. "Revisiting the finance-inequality nexus in a panel of African countries," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 399-419.
    3. Uchenna Efobi & Belmondo Tanankem & Simplice Asongu, 2018. "Female Economic Participation with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Advancement: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 18/005, African Governance and Development Institute..
    4. Uchenna R. Efobi & Belmondo V. Tanankem & Simplice A. Asongu, 2018. "Female Economic Participation with Information and Communication Technology Advancement: Evidence from Sub‐Saharan Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 86(2), pages 231-246, June.
    5. Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Mishra, Sagarika & Narayan, Seema, 2011. "Do market capitalization and stocks traded converge? New global evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 2771-2781, October.
    6. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1992. "Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 297-323, October.
    7. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2020. "Insurance Policy Thresholds for Economic Growth in Africa," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(3), pages 672-689, July.
    8. Bun, Maurice J. G. & Kiviet, Jan F., 2003. "On the diminishing returns of higher-order terms in asymptotic expansions of bias," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 145-152, May.
    9. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Levine, Ross, 2003. "Law and finance: why does legal origin matter?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 653-675, December.
    10. Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2014. "Financial systems and economic growth in South Africa: a dynamic complementarity test," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 83-101, January.
    11. Samuel GUERINEAU & Relwende SAWADOGO, 2015. "On the determinants of life insurance development in Sub-Saharan Africa: the role of the institutions quality in the effect of economic development," Working Papers 201519, CERDI.
    12. John Ssozi & Simplice A. Asongu, 2016. "The Effects of Remittances on Output per Worker in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Production Function Approach," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 84(3), pages 400-421, September.
    13. Bruno, Giuseppe & De Bonis, Riccardo & Silvestrini, Andrea, 2012. "Do financial systems converge? New evidence from financial assets in OECD countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 141-155.
    14. Abdul Latif Alhassan & Nicholas Biekpe, 2015. "Efficiency, Productivity and Returns to Scale Economies in the Non-Life Insurance Market in South Africa," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 40(3), pages 493-515, July.
    15. Frank Gyimah Sackey & Peter N. Amponsah, 2017. "Willingness to accept capitation payment system under the Ghana National Health Insurance Policy: do income levels matter?," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    16. Tchamyou, Vanessa S. & Asongu, Simplice A., 2017. "Conditional market timing in the mutual fund industry," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1355-1366.
    17. David Roodman, 2009. "A Note on the Theme of Too Many Instruments," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(1), pages 135-158, February.
    18. Simplice A Asongu & Lieven De Moor, 2017. "Financial Globalisation Dynamic Thresholds for Financial Development: Evidence from Africa," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(1), pages 192-212, January.
    19. Kiviet, Jan F., 1995. "On bias, inconsistency, and efficiency of various estimators in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 53-78, July.
    20. Antonio Andrés & Simplice Asongu & Voxi Amavilah, 2015. "The Impact of Formal Institutions on Knowledge Economy," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 6(4), pages 1034-1062, December.
    21. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    22. Alhassan, Abdul Latif & Biekpe, Nicholas, 2016. "Determinants of life insurance consumption in Africa," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 17-27.
    23. Tchamyou, Vanessa S. & Erreygers, Guido & Cassimon, Danny, 2019. "Inequality, ICT and financial access in Africa," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 169-184.
    24. Bogliacino, Francesco & Piva, Mariacristina & Vivarelli, Marco, 2012. "R&D and employment: An application of the LSDVC estimator using European microdata," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 56-59.
    25. Uchenna Efobi, 2015. "Politicians’ Attributes and Institutional Quality in Africa: A Focus on Corruption," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(3), pages 787-813, July.
    26. Abdul Latif Alhassan, 2016. "Insurance market development and economic growth," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(3), pages 321-339, March.
    27. Augustin Kwasi Fosu & Abdul Fatawu Abass, 2019. "Domestic Credit and Export Diversification: Africa from a Global Perspective," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 160-179, April.
    28. David Kelsey & Sara le Roux, 2018. "Strategic ambiguity and decision-making: an experimental study," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 84(3), pages 387-404, May.
    29. Nishant Dass & Massimo Massa & Rajdeep Patgiri, 2008. "Mutual Funds and Bubbles: The Surprising Role of Contractual Incentives," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(1), pages 51-99, January.
    30. Judson, Ruth A. & Owen, Ann L., 1999. "Estimating dynamic panel data models: a guide for macroeconomists," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 9-15, October.
    31. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    32. Vanessa S. Tchamyou, 2019. "The Role of Information Sharing in Modulating the Effect of Financial Access on Inequality," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 317-338, July.
    33. K. Bello Ajide & Ibrahim Dolapo Raheem, 2016. "The Institutional Quality Impact on Remittances in the ECOWAS Sub†Region," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 28(4), pages 462-481, December.
    34. K. Bello Ajide & Ibrahim Dolapo Raheem, 2016. "Institutions-FDI Nexus in ECOWAS Countries," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 319-341, September.
    35. Stephen Oluwatobi & Uchenna Efobi & Isaiah Olurinola & Philip Alege, 2015. "Innovation in Africa: Why Institutions Matter," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 83(3), pages 390-410, September.
    36. David Kelsey & Sara Le Roux, 2017. "Dragon Slaying with Ambiguity: Theory and Experiments," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 19(1), pages 178-197, February.
    37. Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2010. "Financial deepening and poverty reduction in Zambia: an empirical investigation," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(1), pages 41-53, January.
    38. Bruno, Giovanni S.F., 2005. "Approximating the bias of the LSDV estimator for dynamic unbalanced panel data models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 361-366, June.
    39. Tversky, Amos & Slovic, Paul & Kahneman, Daniel, 1990. "The Causes of Preference Reversal," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(1), pages 204-217, March.
    40. Giovanni S. F. Bruno, 2005. "Estimation and inference in dynamic unbalanced panel-data models with a small number of individuals," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 5(4), pages 473-500, December.
    41. Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2013. "Is financial development pro-poor or pro-rich? Empirical evidence from Tanzania," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 489-500, December.
    42. Nyman, John A., 2001. "The income transfer effect, the access value of insurance and the Rand health insurance experiment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 295-298, March.
    43. Brambor, Thomas & Clark, William Roberts & Golder, Matt, 2006. "Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 63-82, January.
    44. Mauro Costantini & Claudio Lupi, 2005. "Stochastic convergence among European economies," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 3(38), pages 1-17.
    45. Mouna Zerriaa & Mohamed Marouen Amiri & Hedi Noubbigh & Kamel Naoui, 2017. "Determinants of Life Insurance Demand in Tunisia," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 29(1), pages 69-80, March.
    46. Amy Finkelstein & Nathaniel Hendren & Mark Shepard, 2019. "Subsidizing Health Insurance for Low-Income Adults: Evidence from Massachusetts," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(4), pages 1530-1567, April.
    47. Maurice J.G. Bun & Jan F. Kiviet, 2001. "The Accuracy of Inference in Small Samples of Dynamic Panel Data Models," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 01-006/4, Tinbergen Institute.
    48. Levere, Michael & Orzol, Sean & Leininger, Lindsey & Early, Nancy, 2019. "Contemporaneous and long-term effects of children’s public health insurance expansions on Supplemental Security Income participation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 80-92.
    49. Evans Stephen Osabuohien & Uchenna Rapuluchukwu Efobi, 2013. "Africa's Money in Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 81(2), pages 292-306, June.
    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. Simplice A. Asongu, 2019. "FDI in Selected Developing Countries: Evidence from Bundling and Unbundling Governance," Working Papers 19/057, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    2. Zhu, Chaowei & Zhang, Fan & Zhang, Yuling, 2023. "Revisiting financial opening and financial development: A regulation heterogeneity perspective," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 181-197.
    3. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2021. "Information Asymmetry and Insurance in Africa," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(3), pages 394-410, July.
    4. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2020. "Finance, governance and inclusive education in Sub-Saharan Africa," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 17(8), pages 1044-1061, July.
    5. Alberto Costantiello & Angelo Leogrande, 2023. "The Impact of Voice and Accountability in the ESG Framework in a Global Perspective," Working Papers hal-04043775, HAL.
    6. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2020. "Insurance and Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Policy Thresholds," Research Africa Network Working Papers 20/005, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    7. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Enhancing ICT for insurance in Africa," Review of Development Finance Journal, Chartered Institute of Development Finance, vol. 9(2), pages 16-27.
    8. Alssadek, Marwan & Benhin, James, 2023. "Natural resource curse: A literature survey and comparative assessment of regional groupings of oil-rich countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    9. Adesoji O. Farayibi & Oludele Folarin, 2020. "Does Government Education Expenditure Affect Educational Outcomes? New Evidence from Sub-Sahara African Countries," Research Africa Network Working Papers 21/048, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    10. Adesoji Oladapo Farayibi & Oludele Folarin, 2021. "Does government education expenditure affect educational outcomes? New evidence from sub‐Saharan African countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 33(3), pages 546-559, September.
    11. Adesoji O. Farayibi & Oludele Folarin, 2021. "Does Government Education Expenditure Affect Educational Outcomes? New Evidence from Sub-Sahara African Countries," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 21/048, African Governance and Development Institute..
    12. Adesoji O. Farayibi & Oludele Folarin, 2021. "Does Government Education Expenditure Affect Educational Outcomes? New Evidence from Sub-Sahara African Countries," Working Papers 21/048, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).

    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. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2020. "Finance, governance and inclusive education in Sub-Saharan Africa," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 17(8), pages 1044-1061, July.
    2. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2020. "Insurance Policy Thresholds for Economic Growth in Africa," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(3), pages 672-689, July.
    3. Asongu, Simplice A. & Nnanna, Joseph & Acha-Anyi, Paul N., 2020. "Finance, inequality and inclusive education in Sub-Saharan Africa," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 162-177.
    4. Simplice Asongu & Joseph Nnanna & Paul Acha-Anyi, 2019. "Information technology, governance and insurance in Sub-Saharan Africa," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 16(8), pages 1253-1273, September.
    5. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2020. "Inequality thresholds, governance and gender economic inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 94-114, January.
    6. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2021. "The role of inclusive education in governance for inclusive economic participation: gender evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 21/097, African Governance and Development Institute..
    7. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2021. "Income Levels, Governance and Inclusive Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(1), pages 71-103, February.
    8. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Enhancing ICT for insurance in Africa," Review of Development Finance Journal, Chartered Institute of Development Finance, vol. 9(2), pages 16-27.
    9. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2020. "Insurance and Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Policy Thresholds," Research Africa Network Working Papers 20/005, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    10. Simplice A. Asongu & Samba Diop & Amsalu K. Addis, 2023. "Governance, Inequality and Inclusive Education in Sub-Saharan Africa," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(1), pages 43-68, January.
    11. Asongu, Simplice A. & Odhiambo, Nicholas M., 2020. "Foreign direct investment, information technology and economic growth dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1).
    12. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2022. "The paradox of governance and natural resource rents in Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers 22/020, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    13. Asongu, Simplice A & Odhiambo, Nicholas M, 2019. "Governance,CO2 emissions and inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers 25253, University of South Africa, Department of Economics.
    14. Asongu, Simplice A. & Nnanna, Joseph & Acha-Anyi, Paul N., 2020. "Inequality and gender economic inclusion: The moderating role of financial access in Sub-Saharan Africa," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 173-185.
    15. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Governance, capital flight and industrialisation in Africa," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 8(1), pages 1-22, December.
    16. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2024. "Governance quality and trade performance in Sub‐Saharan Africa," World Affairs, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 187(1), pages 78-93, March.
    17. Asongu, Simplice & Nnanna, Joseph & Acha-Anyi, Paul, 2020. "Inclusive Education for Inclusive Economic Participation: the Financial Access Channel," MPRA Paper 103151, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Tchamyou, Vanessa S. & Erreygers, Guido & Cassimon, Danny, 2019. "Inequality, ICT and financial access in Africa," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 169-184.
    19. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2022. "Financial Access and Value Added in Sub-Saharan Africa: Empirical Evidence from the Agricultural, Manufacturing and Service Sectors," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 22/009, African Governance and Development Institute..
    20. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Inclusive development in environmental sustainability in sub‐Saharan Africa: Insights from governance mechanisms," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 713-724, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Insurance; Finance; Governance; Sub-Saharan Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

    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:pra:mprapa:101520. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.