Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/275102 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Citation: 
[Journal:] Journal of Risk and Financial Management [ISSN:] 1911-8074 [Volume:] 16 [Issue:] 1 [Article No.:] 6 [Year:] 2023 [Pages:] 1-14
Publisher: 
MDPI, Basel
Abstract: 
This paper used Reiterative Truncated Projected Least Squares (RTPLS) to estimate the effects on life expectancy of an additional dollar of insurance premiums for 43 countries. The data shows a clear positive relationship between insurance and life expectancy with insurance premiums increasing much faster than the inflation rate. The relationship d(life expectancy)/d(insurance) fell by a statistically significant amount (at a 95 percent confidence level) for 35 of the countries (and the eight exceptions to this pattern had relatively short data series). By 2020, the last dollar of per capita insurance increased a US citizen's life expectancy at birth by only 6 days, a citizen in the United Kingdom by only 9 days, a citizen in Switzerland by only 7 days, and a citizen in Luxembourg by only 1 day. With such small returns to insurance, an important question is, 'Could a society gain more life expectancy by shifting money from insurance into alternative uses'?
Subjects: 
life expectancy
insurance premiums
omitted variables bias
total derivatives
OECD
reiterative truncated projected least squares
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

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