Remittances, Banking Status and the Usage of Insurance Schemes

Arbeitspapier

Empirical evidence that migrants send home more remittances after disasters raises the question of whether remittances are used to self-insure, substituting for both formal and informal insurance. We investigate this question using a unique dataset on the usage patterns of financial services by households in South Africa. We show that the likelihood that a respondent has a formal funeral cover increases with income and banking status. However, it is lower for individuals receiving remittances, which supports the idea that remittances act as self-insurance. We also show that other risk management strategies influence the purchasing of formal funeral cover. Finally, we find that determinants of informal insurance differ from those of formal insurance.

Show object

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: ifo Working Paper ; No. 137

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Household Saving; Personal Finance ; Remittances ; Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies ; Economic Development: Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
• Subject: Remittances ; insurance ; risk management strategies ; Versicherung ; Konsumentenverhalten ; Rücküberweisung (Migranten) ; Selbstversicherung ; Bankgeschäft ; Haushaltseinkommen ; Lebensversicherung ; Schätzung ; Südafrika

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Crayen, Dorothee ; Hainz, Christa ; de Martinez, Christiane Ströh
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/73839