Insurance Development and Economic Growth*

This paper investigates the relationship between insurance development and economic growth by employing GMM models on a dynamic panel data set of 77 economies for the period 1994–2005. Insurance density is used to measure the development of insurance. Controlled by a simple conditioning information set and a policy information set, we can draw a conclusion that insurance development is positively correlated with economic growth. The sample is then divided into developed and developing economies. For the developing economies, the overall insurance development, life insurance and non-life insurance development play a much more important role than they do for the developed economies