The Effects of Health Status on Life Insurance Holdings in 16 European Countries

Saruultuya Tsendsuren, Chu-Shiu Li, Sheng-Chang Peng and Wing-Keung Wong
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Saruultuya Tsendsuren: Business Development Division, Golomt Bank of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar 15160, Mongolia
Chu-Shiu Li: Department of Risk Management and Insurance, College of Finance and Banking, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung 824, Taiwan
Sheng-Chang Peng: Department of Risk Management and Insurance, School of Management, Ming Chuan University, Taipei 111, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-30

Abstract: This study examines the relationships among three health status indicators (self-perceived health status, objective health status, and future health risk) and life insurance holdings in 16 European countries. Our results show that households with poor self-perceived health status and high future health risk are less likely to purchase life insurance in the entire sample as well as in the subsample for countries with a national health system (NHS). In non-NHS countries, those households that have high future health risk are less inclined to purchase life insurance. In terms of preferences for types of life insurance policies (term life, whole life, both, or none) in the whole sample, poor self-perceived health status and high future health risk are less inclined to hold only term life insurance policy. In addition, poor self-perceived health status and high future health risk have a negative impact on holdings of both types of life insurance. Our findings reveal that there is no adverse selection problem in the life insurance market, especially in European countries with NHS.

Keywords: life insurance; term life insurance; whole life insurance; self-perceived health; objective health status; future health risk; SHARE; national health system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:10:p:3454-:d:172438

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