| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1003048 | Research in International Business and Finance | 2016 | 11 Pages |
•This paper examines the explanatory factors of life insurance consumption in Africa.•Annual data on 31 African countries from 2006 to 2010 are employed in the econometric analysis.•Using the OLS and dynamic GMM techniques, we find that demographic factors better explain life insurance consumption compared to financial factors.•Income, inflation, dependency ratio and life expectancy lead to decline in life insurance consumption, financial development, health expenditure and institutional quality were found to positively impact on life insurance consumption in Africa.
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.
