In search of opportunities for development of microinsurance by drawing on the experience of previous generations

Motivation: Notwithstanding the 30 years of the market economy, the Polish insurance market still reveals an exceptionally low level of penetration rates and insurance density. Attempts should be made to reduce the protection gap by introducing and popularising microinsurance products. Aim: The research aims to establish whether there exists a need for microinsurance products in Poland and whether there are conditions for its development, which groups it should target and what methods and institutions can reduce the protection gap. Results: Data analysis demonstrated that in Poland the lowest use of insurance coverage to manage risk occurs in the lowest income households, comprising groups of people with relatively low education: disability pensioners, farmers and workers. This results in lack of or limited access to insurance. Looking for a way to counteract this phenomenon, I suggest introducing and popularising microinsurance products targeting towards the above-mentioned groups. However, the use of remote microinsurance distribution channels may prove highly ineffective. Considering the above and the lack of trust in entities operating in the insurance market, it is recommended to create a legal environment enabling the inclusion of institutions and organisations acceptable to and enjoying the trust of these circles in processes involving marketing, distribution and, partially, the servicing of microinsurance. These players should consist of civic organisations, such as volunteer fire brigades, rural housewives’ clubs, activist organisations from religious communities, as well as those set up for mutual protection, e.g., relief and loan funds and savings and loan funds. A separate group targeted by microinsurance should consist of people who are young, open to new trends and interested in obtaining insurance coverage for a limited time, e.g., for the short period when they use a means of personal transport or other rented equipment, for which coverage can be obtained and paid for quickly and without undue formalities.

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY OF BANGLADESH

This study investigates the impact of Covid-19 on the insurance industry of Bangladesh. We utilize a quarterly panel data of top-performing both life and non-life companies for the duration between Q1:2018 to Q1:2021. We depend on the quantitative method to determine the exact scenario implementing through the fixed effect model. The finding explains that the adverse effect of the pandemic is significant on the quarterly premium income, insurance density, and penetration. A robustness test further justifies the validity of the findings. We discuss the causes behind decline to portraits real scenario of such harsh impact. The sector demands potential measures that ensure a stable situation.

Analytical Study of General Insurance in India

There is a striking difference between developed and developing nations in terms of general insurance penetration and density. It was highest for United States in 2008. It was very closely followed by Switzerland. In fact, General insurance density and penetration both has always been high for these two countries. In this way, these two countries can be regarded as the world leader in general insurance industry. General insurance penetration has not shown much change over the years. For developed countries the average General insurance penetration for 2008 was 3.40 while that of developing nations was just 2.90. Also, there have been no major changes in these values since 2001. Among developing countries, South Africa and Taiwan are fast gaining momentum. Russia is also a close competitor in terms of general insurance penetration. In the Indian sub-continent, it is Sri Lanka that has shown the maximum general insurance penetration and density. India is the next in the rank.

STUDY ON THE CORRELATION EFFECT OF INCOME LEVEL ON CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY AND INSURANCE BEHAVIOR

At present, the consumer psychology of some consumers does not match with the insurance behavior because of insufficient income. The performance is that many people who have the intention to insure do not produce the insurance behavior. Therefore, it is one of the insurance marketing strategies that how to break the hesitancy of those people who have the intention to insure to become insurance customers. From the perspective of behavioral economics, this paper puts forward the hypothesis that income level has correlation effect on consumer psychology and insurance behavior, conducts the empirical study, constructs the model of income level—consumer psychology— insurance behavior correlation effect, reveals the transformation mechanism of policy holder’s psychology—willingness—behavior, and puts forward some reasonable suggestions for effectively stimulating consumption to increase the insurance density. Its study value lies in guiding the insurance practice with the basic theory of behavioral insurance, which is helpful for both parties to have a win-win situation and promoting the social security function and coverage of insurance, so as to promote the healthy and orderly development of insurance industry.

Drivers of life insurance consumption - an empirical analysis of Western Balkan countries

Life insurance in the Western Balkan Countries is underdeveloped, but it has huge potential for development in the future. The scope of this article is to examine whether and how economic, socio- demographic, and institutional factors determine the demand for life insurance in the Western Balkans, using life insurance density and life insurance penetration as indicators of life insurance demand during 2006-2019. In order to conduct a crosscountry analysis we use panel data regression models and a feasible generalised least squares regression model. The analysis reveals that the most significant factors are income per capita and changes in the urban population. The article contributes to the existing literature by identifying the variables that affect demand for life insurance in the Western Balkans and by providing evidence for insurance operators, authorities, and governments of the respective countries to find ways to further develop the insurance market.

Performance of the Polish Insurance Sector in the Second Decade of the 21st Century

The study analyzes the performance of the Polish insurance sector between 2010 and 2019. The analysis was based on source materials from the Statistical Yearbook published by Statistics Poland (GUS), reports of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) and the Polish Chamber of Insurance (PIU). The main indicators describing the performance of the insurance market, including its concentration, number of policies, market structure, competitiveness, consumer behavior, and the financial performance of insurance companies were identified and analyzed. The strengths and weaknesses of the Polish private insurance market in the last ten years were determined. The main weakness was a considerable decrease in the sale of life insurance (branch I) policies, which was manifested by a steady decrease in gross premium, a continued decline in insurance density and penetration rate, deteriorating financial performance, and a decrease in the number of branch I insurance companies. Considerably better results were reported in the non-life insurance segment (branch II), where gross earned premium continued to improve and increased by around 64% over the analyzed decade. The non-life sector was also characterized by a steady improvement in density (increase of PLN 436), penetration rate (increase of 0.07%) and financial performance (net technical result increased by PLN 4.2 billion, net profit increased by PLN 1.5 billion).

The Impact of Demographic Burden on Insurance Density

The article investigates the relationship between demographic burden and insurance market by employing panel vector autoregression models with six groups of endogenous variables to a dynamic panel data set of 25 economies for the period 1980–2016. Demographic burden is represented by dependency ratios measured in respect to the population younger than the age of 15 (young-age dependency ratio), population above the age of 64 (old-age dependency ratio) as well as males and females above the age of 64 being examined separately. As indicators of insurance market development, life insurance density, non-life insurance density, and total insurance density are used. The robustness of the results is verified across 10 subsamples of the main observation period. The conducted analyses show a heterogeneous impact of demographic burden on the insurance market. The impulse responses reveal that negative effects prevail in the long term, which may result from the negative impact of an increasing demographic burden on the economy. In the short term, growth in female and male old-age dependency ratios drives up life and non-life insurance density.

Life Insurance Sector Development and Economic Growth of India in the Changing Policy Regime

The changing economic scenario of the Indian economy posed new challenges to almost all the sectors of the economy, and the insurance sector is no exception. The introduction of insurance sector reforms not only eliminated the monopoly of life insurance sector, but opened up the insurance windows to the private players which increased the competition in many folds, especially since 2000. The reforms brought an overall increase in insurance penetration as well as insurance density in the country. As a result, the insurance industry is today more efficient and exerts considerable positive impacts on the growth of the Indian economy. The insurance sector contributes to a rise in labour productivity through efficient investments, and also generates productive employment opportunities. In this context, this paper examines dynamics of the relationship between the development of life insurance sector and the real economic growth in the changing policy regime in India, and provides the evidence of the positive and significant relationship between them. Therefore, it is suggested to prioritize the focus on the further development of the sector may be through the implementation of prudent policies to increase rural penetration of life insurance in India. Also, the inclusive growth strategy in the country can be effectively mobilized to enhance the development of the life insurance sector.