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The purpose of this paper is to examine insurance regulation theories, regulatory agency structures and measures.

This study investigates significance of regulatory agency structure, key regulatory measures, political stability and cultural dimension in insurance markets of 56 developed and developing countries for 2005‐2009.

It was found that insurance consumption is lower in countries with an authority exclusively for insurance regulation but life insurance consumption is higher when the agency is part of government or when another agency is jointly responsible for insurance regulation. Market entry regulation leads to lower consumption whereas market exit regulation has the opposite effect. Solvency regulation and required use of standard forms for insurer financials lead to greater consumption of insurance. A positive impact on the nonlife market is observed for accounting regulation and regulator's intervention power.

Price control regulation may lower consumption of insurance whereas tariff rating brings about a rise in the consumption. Regulation of insurance intermediaries or corporate governance may lower insurance consumption whereas the requirement that insurers employ an actuary or actuaries gives rise to the consumption.

The author found no difference between OECD and non‐OECD countries. However, corruption‐freeness and inflation impact insurance consumption. Using OECD country data only, a negative impact was found of the single agency structure and tariff regulation in the life insurance market and a positive impact of regulation by two or more agencies in the life insurance market and of price control regulation in the nonlife insurance market. Corruption‐freeness positively affects the loss ratio in the life insurance market and the combined ratio in the nonlife insurance market.

Given the increasing importance of engineering insurance, it is still unclear which specific factors can enhance the role of engineering insurance as a risk transfer tool. This study aims to propose a hybrid approach to identify and analyze the key determinants influencing the consumption of engineering insurance in mainland China.

The empirical analysis utilizes provincial data from mainland China from 2008 to 2019. The research framework is a novel amalgamation of the generalized method of moments (GMM) model, the quantile regression (QR) technique and the random forest (RF) algorithm. This innovative hybrid approach provides a comprehensive exploration of the driving factors while also allowing for an examination across different quantiles of insurance consumption.

The study identifies several driving factors that significantly impact engineering insurance consumption. Income, financial development, inflation, price, risk aversion, market structure and the social security system have a positive and significant influence on engineering insurance consumption. However, urbanization exhibits a negative and significant effect on the consumption of engineering insurance. QR techniques reveal variations in the effects of these driving factors across different levels of engineering insurance consumption.

This study extends the research on insurance consumption to the domain of the engineering business, making theoretical and practical contributions. The findings enrich the knowledge of insurance consumption by identifying the driving factors specific to engineering insurance for the first time. The research framework provides a novel and useful tool for examining the determinants of insurance consumption. Furthermore, the study offers insights into the engineering insurance market and its implications for policymakers and market participants.

Contrary to the implications of economic theory, consumption inequality in the United States did not react to the increases in income inequality during the last three decades. This paper investigates if a change in the type of income inequality – from permanent to transitory – or a change in the ability to insure income shocks is responsible for this. A measure of household consumption is imputed into the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to create panel data on income and consumption for the period 1980–2010. The minimum distance investigation of covariance relationships shows that both explanations work together: the share of transitory shocks increases over time, but the capability to insure against permanent and transitory income shocks also improves. Together, these phenomena can explain the lack of an increase in consumption inequality.

The New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS), implemented in China since 2003, has greatly increased the access of the poor to health services and alleviated the hardship caused by catastrophic medical payments. Both the precautionary saving theory and the Buffer‐Stock saving theory would predict a positive effect of this event on consumption. The purpose of this paper is to empirically study the effects of medical insurance on durables consumption in rural China.

Using China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data, the authors study the effects of medical insurance on durable goods consumption in rural China through a panel binary choice model.

It is found that households with medical insurance have a significantly higher level of durables consumption, and their probabilities of purchasing durables increase by 2.0 per cent‐4.4 per cent, which support the precautionary saving theory and the Buffer‐Stock saving theory.

Unlike previous studies, the authors focus on the effects of medical insurance on the consumption of durables, which have a big weight in household wealth and are more sensitive to income uncertainty.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of income shocks on household real consumption expenditure, taking into account the various informal coping strategies adopted by the households. Using Nigerian Household Panel Survey data for the year 2010/2011 and 2012/2013 respectively, and probit model estimation approach, the results suggest that idiosyncratic shocks have effect on household consumption expenditure and the informal insurance strategies play only limited roles in providing the needed insurance to households in the face of shocks. Also, the effect of shocks vary according to households characteristics, which depends on whether the household is headed by male or female and urban or rural dweller.

This paper explores the fixed effects and probit model estimation approach to examine the relationship between the effect of covariate and self-reported idiosyncratic shocks on household welfare. The study examines the effectiveness of the various informal coping measures adopted by households against shocks.

The results suggest that idiosyncratic shocks have been found to have little effect on real consumption expenditure and the informal insurance strategies play only limited roles in providing the much needed insurance to households in the face of shocks. Also, the effect of shocks vary according to households characteristics, whether the household is headed by male or female and urban or rural dweller is important.

The novelty of this essay is to investigate the relationship between variation in self-reported shocks to income across households and real consumption expenditure in Nigeria – a poor, risk-prone country – considering also, the ease with which households adopt the various risk-coping strategies, which help them in smoothing consumption over time.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the driving forces that influence family Takaful demand in Malaysia. The paper examines various identified and available economics and socio‐demographic variables.

Using ordinary least square (OLS) and generalised method of moments (GMM) techniques, the paper investigates the significance of the identified economic and socio‐demographic factors in determining the consumption of family Takaful. The paper first examines a full model that combines all variables; second, a model that controls for product market factors; and finally, a model that controls for socio‐demographic factors. Following Anderson and Nevin, Haberman, Lenten and Rulli and Josa the paper further separates all models into linear and log‐linear demand functions.

The paper demonstrates that income, Islamic banking development, education, dependency ratio and Muslim population factors are positively related to Takaful demand. On the other hand, inflation, real interest rate, financial development and life expectancy appear to be the significant factors that adversely influence the total family Takaful consumption.

The major limitation of this paper is the small sample size. Therefore, future studies may expand the variables omitted in this study due to unavailability of data, which may be influential in explaining the family Takaful demand in Malaysia. Possible influential variables may include government social security expenditure, price of Takaful and level of competition within the Takaful and insurance industry. Research should also be conducted on the impact of the legal system and government policies on the demand for family Takaful in the country. Finally, the study focuses solely on the determinants of demand for family Takaful. Nevertheless, the supply‐side of the equation should not be neglected and should be incorporated in future studies.

It is obvious that there are very few studies that focus on the Malaysian market and indeed, none of them gives attention to the factors that influence demand for family Takaful. In this regard, this study contributes in filling the gaps in the scope and coverage of studies in similar area. While this study is expected to provide more understanding and awareness on the concept of Takaful and the factors that influence its demand, the authors hope that it would encourage more studies on various issues on the Takaful industry so as to help researchers to understand more aspects of this new emerging business.

In the past two decades, many emerging economies have been witnessed the strong growth of their life insurance industry. While research in the demand for life insurance has attracted much attention since the 1960s, most studies have focused on cross‐country studies or well‐established markets in developed countries. As a result of cross‐national variations in life insurance consumption, it has been argued in the literature that factors shaping the demand for life insurance are complex and varied from one country to another. This paper aims to examine key determinants of the demand for life insurance in China with a view to explaining the rapid growth of the life insurance industry in China since its economic reform in 1978. Empirical investigation using a time series data analysis has shown that the main factors which have influenced people in China to purchase life insurance products are directly associated with the successful economic reform leading people to progress to higher layers of economic security, the increase in the level of education and the change in social structure. However, this research has not found a negative effect of inflation on life insurance consumption, even China experienced high inflation in the mid‐1990s.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the driving forces (economics and socio-demographic) that influence family Takaful demand in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, using a sample of 15 countries from the MENA.

The authors use multivariate analysis, bootstrapping and generalised method of moments techniques. They first examine a full model that combines all variables; second, a model that controls for product market factors; and finally, a model that controls for socio-demographic factors. They further separate all models into linear and log-linear demand functions.

The authors demonstrate that the relationship between the demand for family Takaful in MENA and Islamic banking deposits, education, dependency rate, female life expectancy and Muslim population is significantly positive. On the other hand, the significant factors that are inversely related to the demand for family Takaful in MENA are inflation, financial development and male life expectancy.

The crucial limitation of this study is the amount of data available in regards to the dependent variable, family Takaful contributions. Consequently, to improve the understanding in explaining the family Takaful demand in MENA, further research can take advantage of expanding the variables that were omitted in this research as a consequence of the unavailability of data. Some of the possible influential variables can include government social security expenditure, legal system and government policies, price of Takaful and level of competition within the Takaful and insurance industry.

It is obvious that there are very few studies that focus on the MENA market, and indeed, none of them gives attention to the factors that influence demand for family Takaful. While this study is expected to provide more understanding and awareness on the concept of Takaful and the factors that influence its demand, the authors hope that it would encourage more studies on various issues on the Takaful industry so as to help researchers to understand more aspects of this new emerging business.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the macroeconomic determinants of life insurance demand in India. The recent decline in life insurance activity calls for a study on the factors influencing life insurance demand in India.

This study employs econometric techniques like augmented Dickey-Fuller test, Johansen cointegration test, vector error correction models and the Granger causality test to estimate the macroeconomic predictors of life insurance demand in India, during the period 1980-1981 to 2013-2014.

Financial sector development and inflation positively influence life insurance demand in India. The real rate of interest and income are negatively related to life insurance consumption. The study finds an insignificant relation between the level of social security expenditure and life insurance buying. Financial sector development is found to Granger-cause life insurance demand.

Product-wise analysis of life insurance demand is not attempted due to lack of unit-level data. The impact of regulatory changes on life insurance demand in India is not attempted.

Intervention by the policy makers is required to arrest the decline of life insurance activity in India. Efforts are required to widen the financial sector of the Indian economy to accelerate the growth of life insurance activity.

The paper introduces a new measure of life insurance demand, the total regular new business premium, in the estimation of life insurance demand determination.

This study investigates the role of financial access in moderating the effect of governance on insurance consumption in 42 sub-Saharan African countries using data for the period 2004–2014.

Two life insurance indicators are used, notably: life insurance and non-life insurance. Six governance measurements are also used, namely: political stability, ‘voice and accountability’, government effectiveness, regulation quality, corruption-control and the rule of law. The empirical evidence is based on the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) and Least Squares Dummy Variable Corrected (LSDVC) estimators.

Estimations from the LSDVC are not significant while the following main findings are established from the GMM. First, financial access promotes life insurance through channels of political stability, ‘voice and accountability’, government effectiveness, the rule of law and corruption-control. Second, financial access also stimulates non-life insurance via governance mechanisms of political stability, ‘voice and accountability’, government effectiveness, regulation quality, the rule of law and corruption-control.

This research complements the sparse literature on insurance promotion in Africa by engaging the hitherto unexplored role of financial access through governance channels.