Sustainability Practices and Stability in the Insurance Industry

Laura Chiaramonte, Alberto Dreassi, Andrea Paltrinieri and Stefano Piserà
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Laura Chiaramonte: Department of Business Administration, University of Verona, 37129 Verona, Italy
Alberto Dreassi: Department of Economics, Business, Mathematics and Statistics, University of Trieste, 34123 Trieste, Italy
Andrea Paltrinieri: Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy
Stefano Piserà: Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 14, 1-25

Abstract: While the concept of sustainability is receiving growing attention from investors, firms, regulators, and researchers, little is known about its role in the insurance industry. As institutional investors and risk-absorbers from businesses and individuals, insurers adopt an operating model that is more inclined to target long-term objectives; they should be among the firms benefiting the most from engaging in sustainable practices. The existing literature provides evidence of the positive impact of sustainability on commercial stability, but this is the first study to examine this relationship for the insurance sector. Focusing on American listed insurers, we found that sustainability, proxied by Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) scores, enhances the stability of insurers, and that this relationship is driven by environmental and social dimensions. We did not observe a significant contribution from the governance dimension. Finally, we found a stronger association for life insurers. Our results are shown to be robust to endogeneity, enterprise heterogeneity and potential sample selection biases.

Keywords: Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) scores; stability; insurance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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