Recently, a paper titled 'Commercial Insurance Promotes Common Prosperity Enhancement: Mechanisms and Effects' by Professor Hongbing Hu of the School of Finance and his collaborator Tao Zhu, was published online in the journal 'Insurance Studies'

Commercial Insurance Promotes the Enhancement of Common Prosperity:

Mechanisms and Effects

Hu Hongbing and Zhu Tao

Abstract: As an important sector in the modern economy and a crucial pillar of the social security system, commercial insurance possesses a natural attribute that contributes to the realization of common prosperity. This article, based on CHFS data and the panel entropy method, constructs a common prosperity index and employs a two-way fixed effects model to investigate the impact and mechanisms of commercial insurance on common prosperity. The research findings are as follows:

Firstly, commercial insurance significantly promotes the level of common prosperity in households. This result remains valid after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests.

Secondly, the influence of commercial insurance on common prosperity varies. It has a stronger effect on increasing common prosperity in regions with lower common prosperity levels, in the western regions, among low-income households, and in households headed by females.

Thirdly, the mechanism analysis suggests that commercial insurance can promote common prosperity by narrowing the wealth gap and increasing opportunities for wealth accumulation.