The effect of insurance on economic growth – the analysis of OECD countries

The purpose of this working paper is to examine the impact of insurance on economic growth, which will be performed on two levels: theoretical, presenting most important channels of influence of insurance sector on economic growth, as well as empirical, under which the results of the present research will be presented. The model has been estimated with the use of econometric tools, in particular dynamic panel models (GMM estimator). In addition, apart from the verification of direct impact of insurance on economic growth (basic model), the research has been expanded by the variables, which can strengthen or weaken this relationship. These variables include rate of savings, real interest rate and capital markets’ development. Results from both basic model and model with additional conditional variables show that there is a positive impact of insurance on economic growth.