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The Effects of Urbanization on Insurance Consumption—The experience of China
Author(s) -
Barrese James,
Wang Ping,
Zhang Ji
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
risk management and insurance review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.386
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1540-6296
pISSN - 1098-1616
DOI - 10.1111/rmir.12063
Subject(s) - urbanization , china , consumption (sociology) , empirical research , economics , financial services , differential (mechanical device) , empirical evidence , business , economic growth , finance , geography , social science , philosophy , archaeology , epistemology , aerospace engineering , sociology , engineering
Cross‐country studies of insurance find little support for a hypothesized urbanization–insurance consumption link. Unlike the literature, we argue and find that the relationship is positive. Our study refines the literature relating economic development and financial service activities. The empirical evidence in the existing literature is based on cross‐country samples that are criticized as unrepresentative because they are disproportionately composed of highly developed economies and consequently have limited range in the variables considered; this limits confidence in the resulting evidence. The current study overcomes these empirical difficulties by focusing on one large country with a unique recent development pattern. Like the existing studies, we find a positive insurance–economic development link. In contrast to cross‐country studies, we find that insurance consumption is influenced by urbanization and that the country's World Trade Organization entry had a differential impact on its insurance markets.