Title: Investigating the growth factors of life insurance sector - an ARDL approach

Authors: Abhijit Chakraborty; Avijit Debnath; Ashim Kumar Das

Addresses: Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology Silchar, Silchar-788010, Assam, India ' Department of Economics, Assam (Central) University, Silchar-788011, Assam, India ' Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology Silchar, Silchar-788010, Assam, India

Abstract: Insurance sector is considered a significant contributor to the economic growth of economies across the world. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting growth potentials of life insurance sector in India. ARDL technique is used to investigate short-run and long-run relationships between life insurance sector growth represented by life insurance penetration and 13 independent variables under macro-economic, demographic and socio-cultural category using time series data from 1980-2018. The ARDL bounds testing procedure was used to check for co-integration. The study found that gross domestic product per capita, interest rate (deposit), young dependency ratio, gross capital formation, and education are significantly influencing life insurance sector growth in the long run. The short-run error correction model revealed speed of adjustment at 0.80 at 1% level of significance. The findings may help favourable policy formulation to support the life insurance sector growth in India.

Keywords: life insurance sector; determinants; co-integration; ARDL; bounds test; economic growth; India; GDP per capita; macro-economic; demographic; socio-cultural.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEPEE.2025.148862

International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies, 2025 Vol.22 No.3/4, pp.251 - 270

Received: 22 May 2021
Accepted: 24 Jan 2022
Published online: 30 Sep 2025 *

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