Determinants of Takaful and Conventional Insurance Demand: A Cross-Country Study

Abstract

The study focuses on investing the various determinants that are affecting demand for the Takāful and Conventional insurance in selected Asian countries. Through extensive literature review of articles and reports of international bodies like World Bank, SECP, Swiss-Re on Takāful and conventional Insurance, this research has identified three macroeconomic variables (Per capita Income, Inflation and Saving rate) and four demographic variables (dependency ratio, Life expectancy, Urbanization and Education) as key determinants that are affecting Takāful and Conventional insurance demand. For the study we selected 14 Asian countries in which both Takāful and Conventional insurance companies are operating for the time period of 2005-2012 resulting 112 annual observations of panel data. We applied descriptive statistics firstly and then Hausman specification test (1978) for the selection of fixed and random affect regression models for panel data analysis. Urbanization and education were found to be significant demographic variables affecting demand for both Conventional insurance and Takāful. Whereas per capita income and inflation were found to be the significant macroeconomic variables affecting both Takāful and Conventional insurance demand. It was recommended that both Conventional insurance and especially the Takāful operators should focus on creating awareness among general public as evident from the Education and Per capita income results. As inflation was found to be affecting significantly so Takāful and Conventional insurance operators need to focus on providing micro-Takāful and insurance products for small and medium enterprises. There is dire need to extend the distribution channels for both Takāful and Conventional insurance to provide easy to access products and disseminate quick and relevant information through the electronic media.