The Effect of National Competitiveness on Insurance Penetration in Selected Countries

Insurance as a central risk-taking institution as well as one of the investment institutions increases economic participation, investment development and stimulating economic growth. Therefore, identification of the effective factors on the insurance penetration in developing countries seems necessary. In this regard, the present study attempted to investigate the impact of national competitiveness on insurance penetration coefficient in 20 developing countries during the period 2007-2017. The research model was estimated using panel data and generalized moment’s method in two case. In the first case, the sub-indicators of national competitiveness including basic requirements, efficiency enhancer’s factors and innovation and sophistication factors were used as key variables in the research, and in the second case, the overall competitiveness index is used as a key variable in the research model. The results showed that the effect of overall competitiveness index and its sub-indicators on insurance penetration was positive and significant. Also, the effect of control variables, including per capita income and urbanization rate on insurance penetration is positive and significant, and the effect of dependency ratio on insurance penetration is negative and significant.