Superstition and farmers’ life insurance spending

Yun LIU; Yifei ZHANG; Xin CHEN; Yuxin YANG

doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2021.109975

Superstition and farmers’ life insurance spending

Yun LIU, Yifei ZHANG, Xin CHEN, Yuxin YANG

Department of Economics

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Superstition is prevalent in rural areas, yet very few studies examine whether it affects rural households’ economic decisions. In this paper, we investigate the impact of “zodiac year” superstition on Chinese rural households’ life insurance spending. We find a statistically significant 18.5% increase in life insurance expenditure during the head’s zodiac year. Such a boost is only significant in the zodiac year and does not exist in non-zodiac years. Our study provides novel evidence that rural households would hedge “bad luck” by self-insurance when bearing superstitious beliefs.

Original language	English
Article number	109975
Journal	Economics Letters
Volume	206
Early online date	29 Jun 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2021.109975
Publication status	Published - 1 Sept 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

Insurance
Rural household
Superstition

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.econlet.2021.109975

Cite this

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abstract = "Superstition is prevalent in rural areas, yet very few studies examine whether it affects rural households{\textquoteright} economic decisions. In this paper, we investigate the impact of “zodiac year” superstition on Chinese rural households{\textquoteright} life insurance spending. We find a statistically significant 18.5% increase in life insurance expenditure during the head{\textquoteright}s zodiac year. Such a boost is only significant in the zodiac year and does not exist in non-zodiac years. Our study provides novel evidence that rural households would hedge “bad luck” by self-insurance when bearing superstitious beliefs.",

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AU - ZHANG, Yifei

AU - CHEN, Xin

AU - YANG, Yuxin

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Y1 - 2021/9/1

N2 - Superstition is prevalent in rural areas, yet very few studies examine whether it affects rural households’ economic decisions. In this paper, we investigate the impact of “zodiac year” superstition on Chinese rural households’ life insurance spending. We find a statistically significant 18.5% increase in life insurance expenditure during the head’s zodiac year. Such a boost is only significant in the zodiac year and does not exist in non-zodiac years. Our study provides novel evidence that rural households would hedge “bad luck” by self-insurance when bearing superstitious beliefs.

AB - Superstition is prevalent in rural areas, yet very few studies examine whether it affects rural households’ economic decisions. In this paper, we investigate the impact of “zodiac year” superstition on Chinese rural households’ life insurance spending. We find a statistically significant 18.5% increase in life insurance expenditure during the head’s zodiac year. Such a boost is only significant in the zodiac year and does not exist in non-zodiac years. Our study provides novel evidence that rural households would hedge “bad luck” by self-insurance when bearing superstitious beliefs.

KW - Insurance

KW - Rural household

KW - Superstition

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DO - 10.1016/j.econlet.2021.109975

M3 - Journal Article (refereed)

SN - 0165-1765

VL - 206

JO - Economics Letters

JF - Economics Letters

M1 - 109975

ER -

Superstition and farmers’ life insurance spending

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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