Determinants of life insurance consumption in Africa

Abdul Latif Alhassan and Nicholas Biekpe

Research in International Business and Finance, 2016, vol. 37, issue C, 17-27

Abstract: We take motivation from the low insurance penetration in Africa to investigate the factors that influence life insurance consumption in 31 African countries from 1996 to 2010. By employing both ordinary least squares and instrumental variables regressions, this study finds that demographic factors better explain life insurance consumption compared to financial factors. While we find income, inflation, dependency ratio and life expectancy lead to decline in life insurance consumption, financial development, health expenditure and institutional quality are found to positively impact on life insurance consumption in Africa. The findings provide policy implications for the development of life insurance markets in Africa.

Keywords: Life insurance penetration; Demography; Financial; Determinants; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G10 G22 J10 N97 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:37:y:2016:i:c:p:17-27

DOI: 10.1016/j.ribaf.2015.10.016

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