Research On The Influence Of Child Structure On Family Participation In Commercial Insurance

The insurance industry,one of the three pillars of China’s financial sector,has maintained a rapid growth since its gradual recovery in the 1980 s.In today’s households,children have gradually become an important factor influencing the economic decisions of families and have a significant role to play in their participation in commercial insurance.This paper therefore uses data from the China Household Financial Survey(CHFS)2019 to explore families’ insurance choices from the perspective of their children,which,on the one hand,enriches domestic research on the factors influencing families’ purchase of commercial insurance and,on the other hand,helps commercial insurance companies to gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the different needs of Chinese families for insurance products today and to develop new insurance products in a targeted manner,offering On the other hand,it will help commercial insurers to gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the different needs of Chinese families for insurance products,to develop new products in a targeted manner,and to launch cost-effective product portfolios.The paper first introduces the characteristics and theoretical knowledge of family child structure and commercial insurance.Secondly,it discusses the current situation of child structure and commercial insurance in China respectively,as well as the mechanism of the influence of child structure on the likelihood and extent of household participation in commercial insurance.Finally,this paper selects the 2019 China Household Financial Survey(CHFS)data and uses the Probit model and Tobit model to study the impact of child structure on the likelihood and extent of household participation in commercial insurance.And its impact on households’ participation in commercial life insurance,commercial health insurance and other commercial insurance is investigated.To address the endogeneity issue,this paper uses the full liberalisation of the two-child policy as an instrumental variable in the regressions and robustness tests using a restricted sample approach,classifying households by number of children and urban and rural areas for heterogeneity analysis.The main findings of this paper are: the number of children has a significant negative effect on household participation in commercial insurance;household gender preference gradually fades,with both boys and girls in the household having a significant positive effect on household participation in commercial insurance;and households significantly increase their participation in commercial insurance when they have children of school age.In households with no children and households with one child,the number of children has a significant effect on household participation in commercial insurance,but in households with two or more children,the effect of the number of children is significantly negative;the negative effect of the number of children is more pronounced in rural households than in urban households,probably due to the difference between urban and rural perceptions of retirement and the number of children.Among the control variables,household characteristics,household income and assets have the greatest influence on household participation in commercial insurance;among household head characteristics,female heads of households and households with better health are more likely to participate in commercial insurance.Finally,the following countermeasures are proposed: promote the structural reform of the supply side of the insurance industry,improve the relevance of insurance products,innovate insurance products for "multi-child" families and meet diversified product needs;enhance residents’ awareness of purchasing commercial insurance to release insurance demand;the government should improve the protection system related to the implementation of the three-child policy and establish a sound family-friendly system.The government should improve the protection system for the implementation of the three-child policy and establish a sound family-friendly system.