Does the insurance sector really matter for economic growth? Evidence from Central and Eastern European countries

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of insurance sector development on economic growth based on a sample that includes 14 Central and Eastern European (CEE) post-transition countries for a period of 19 years, from 1998 to 2016. Considering the presence of cross-section dependence and multiple structural breaks, recently developed panel econometric techniques were employed and led to the following conclusions: (1) life insurance has no significant effect on economic growth in both panel and individual countries, (2) non-life insurance positively affects economic growth in both panel and individual countries, (3) Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test indicates a unidirectional causality running from economic growth to both life and non-life insurance and infers the absence of causal connection between life and non-life insurance and economic growth.

Keywords

• insurance sector
• life insurance penetration
• non-life insurance penetration
• economic growth
• central and eastern europe
• multiple structural breaks
• panel cointegration
• causality