Life Insurance Demand and Economic Factors Effect on Health Indicators

Economic factors, including life insurance in financial sector may have a significant effect on health sector and consequently on the life expectancy of the society. The life insurance effects on health index indirectly through economic growth and directly through bringing mental relaxation and social welfare for the person applying for life insurance. The main purpose of this study was to investigate how life insurance demand and other economic factors effect on life expectancy index of the society. In this study, the relevant data with respect to life expectancy as dependant variable and economic factors including life insurance demand have been collected from Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) countries for the years 2011 to 1998; using panel data analysis. The results of the study indicate a significant and statistically positive effect of life insurance demand on life expectancy index of the selected OIC countries. On the other hand, the variables such as financial development and per capita income also have significant positive effect, while the variables such as unemployment and inflation have significant negative effect on life expectancy index of health. The results suggest that economic conditions improvement through lowering rate of unemployment, lowering rate of inflation, increase in per capita income and the financial market development could probably improve the condition of life expectancy in a society. Therefore, that is recommended for the planners to take into account the fundamental economic indicators specially life insurance consumption while planning for health and welfare betterment of the society.