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The life insurance industry has experienced phenomenal growth over the years. The broad aim of this study was to establish the variables that influence the demand for life insurance in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Although many studies have investigated the determinants of life insurance demand, little research has considered the supply-side factors such as financial regulation. Therefore, this study also contemplated the effect of the financial regulation variable on life insurance demand. The inquiry employed a panel of the BRICS bloc of countries as a unit of analysis for 1999–2020 and applied panel data econometric techniques. The study found that the life insurance demand variable (proxied by life insurance density and alternatively by life insurance penetration) was negatively affected by income, unemployment, interest rates and inflation variables. Furthermore, the study documented a positive relationship between life insurance demand and the economic growth and financial freedom variables. This study implies that regulatory authorities should deregulate the life insurance sector to foster financial freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to find the relationship between key determinants such as income, education, life expectancy, employment and life insurance demand in the countries of the Visegrad Group (V4). This article makes use of OECD data and applies linear and panel data regressions. We find that with increasing income and higher educational attainment, people demonstrate more demand for investment in pension funds but less for life insurance. Furthermore, unemployment appears to have a strongly negative effect in all presented models, and with higher life expectancy, people demand more life insurance products and less pension fund assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life insurance protects individuals against their own risks and helps to increase their savings. Life insurance as a component of insurance business have part in maintaining economic growth of a country. Despite the fact that life insurance has importance for countries and individuals, it is known that developing countries show low life insurance consumption. Detecting life insurance determinants is important for explaining development of life insurance industry. The aim of the study is to detect economic, financial and demographic determinants of life insurance demand in Turkey. The literature includes Turkey in panel data or cross section samples with different countries. However, research which focus on Turkey in particular has beenshown limited attention. In this context, time series analysis was carried out on quarterly data between 2009-2019 periods. Determinants of the study are income, real interest rate, inflation, financial deepening, complexity of financial structure and population dependency ratio. As a result of model estimation, all variables were found to have significant effect. The income variable as an economic variable had positive effect. As expected, economic variables which are inflation and real interest rates negatively affects life insurance demand. It has been determined that financial deepening has a positive effect. The complexity of the financial structure factor was negative. Finally, the population dependency ratio, which is considered as a demographic variable, was not statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the influence of institutional factors upon life insurance demand for 32 European countries, considering the socio-demographic and economic determinants as control variables. Using a panel data approach, we find that life insurance demand is influenced differently by institutional indicators from the Worldwide Governance Indicators database, in emerging and transition markets compared to developed ones. The sound legal environment of developed countries, where the level of the rule of law is very homogeneous and very high, makes it non-significant for life insurance demand. For developing countries the enforceability of contracts, the independence of justice and the time efficiency of the judicial process positively influence the decision of citizens to buy life insurance contracts. The effect of income distribution over life insurance density varies across these two categories of countries. For transition and emerging markets we find a positive relationship between life insurance density, income distribution and level of urbanisation. In developed countries, because of the high levels of income, life insurance became a common good, not a luxury one, which makes income distribution an insignificant factor. For emerging and transition countries policymakers should concentrate more on strengthening trust in the insurance sector for reducing the gap with developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]