Beyond the S-Curve: Insurance Penetration, Institutional Quality and Financial Market Development

This paper provides new evidence of factors, other than GDP per capita, that correlate with the development of insurance markets. Based on 20 years of insurance premium data from 180 countries, and a similar wealth of data on institutions and financial market development, the paper presents important correlates of insurance market development. Although the analysis cannot identify which factors directly cause insurance market growth, the results suggest that interventions aimed at stimulating insurance supply and demand should take enabling factors, such as the quality of institutional governance and the degree of financial market development, into consideration.