Economic and Environmental Conditions for the Diffusion of Insurance in Three Non-Euro-American Regions During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Pearson Robin (), Daudi Francis, Kocher Eva and Musterle Claus
Additional contact information
Pearson Robin: University of Hull, Hull, UK
Daudi Francis: University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Kocher Eva: University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Musterle Claus: University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, 2023, vol. 17, issue 2, 189-213

Abstract: This paper discusses the macroeconomic and environmental conditions for the spread of insurance in three non-Western world regions (China, Middle East and sub-Sahara Africa). Focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it examines the patterns of economic development relevant for the growth of insurance in these regions, and compares these against standard economic models of insurance diffusion. The paper argues that the growth of insurance must be explained by more than a simple linear relationship with the growth of per capita incomes. As well as income levels, other factors affecting insurance development include urbanization, taxation, savings rates, legal compulsion to insure, state provision of social security, state-owned insurance bodies and the presence of large infrastructural projects. The second part of the paper focuses on environmental conditions in these regions that drove insurance growth, including climate and geography, demography, drought and disease, building materials and risk-reduction technologies.

Keywords: Africa; China; insurance development; Ottoman Empire (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/apjri-2022-0045 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:apjrin:v:17:y:2023:i:2:p:189-213:n:5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/apjri/html

DOI: 10.1515/apjri-2022-0045

Access Statistics for this article

Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance is currently edited by Michael R. Powers

More articles in Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().