The Role of Insurance Enterprices in the Economy

This paper discusses of the most important functions, which are acted by the insurance enterprices in the free market economy. It analyses the microeconomical functions, especially: protection, compensation and accumulation of the capital function. Next, the author presented the macroeconomical functions such as: the role of insurance companies in the redistribution of national income, the insurance companies as the financial intermediaries and institutional investors of the capital market. At the last part of this paper analyses the role of insurance enterprices in the Polish economy. The author’s interests focus on the measures charakteristics of insurance market such as: share of written premiums in GDP, gross written premiums per an inhabitant, total gross claims paid, size and structure of basic types of insurance companies investments, share of insurance companies income tax in the tax revenue of the state budget. The research period lasted from 2000 to 2003