Research On The Impact Of Internet Use On The Participation Of Flexibly Employed People In Commercial Endowment Insurance

Data from our Bureau of Statistics shows that in recent years,the form of employment in China has been affected by a number of factors such as the new crown epidemic and suffered a major impact,with the number of full-time jobs significantly reduced compared to previous years.Benefiting from the continuous popularity of the Internet and the accelerated development of new technologies,a large number of flexible jobs have been created.By the end of 2022,there were more than 200 million flexibly employed people in China,and the flexibly employed population has exceeded a quarter of the total employed population.Flexible employment has provided new ideas to solve the employment problem.However,on the other hand,due to the unique "de-unitization" of flexible employment and the special way of calculating labor compensation,flexibly employed people are excluded from the basic pension insurance system for urban employees based on stable labor relations,and can only participate in the basic pension insurance for urban and rural residents,whose treatment level is generally lower.Flexible workers face problems such as low pension insurance replacement rate,and it is difficult for them to secure their life after retirement.If we want to better protect the pension rights of the flexibly employed,we need the help of commercial endowment insurance in the third pillar.Along with the rapid development of the Internet,the use of the Internet has penetrated into every aspect of the work and life of the flexibly employed,and has also had a profound impact on the insurance industry,and the use of the Internet has largely affected the participation of the flexibly employed in commercial endowment insurance.In this context,it is important to study the flexible employment group,which has proliferated due to the development of the Internet and digital technology,to explore the impact of Internet development on their insurance participation behavior,and to provide positive suggestions for flexible workers’ participation in commercial endowment insurance in keeping with the times,in order to continuously improve the flexible workers’ pension security system and promote the construction of a three-pillar pension system.Based on this,this paper uses the 2018 CGSS database to examine empirically what impact the use of the Internet has on the participation of flexible workers in commercial endowment insurance,based on theories such as insurance demand and behavioral economics.First,this paper uses the Probit model to examine the results that the use of the Internet by the flexibly employed affects the participation in commercial endowment insurance,and on this basis,the robustness of the results is tested by various methods such as replacing the year of the database.Thereafter,this paper sorts out the mechanism of the influence of Internet use,selects income as the mechanism variable,and examines the path of the effect of Internet use on the participation behavior of flexibly employed people.Finally,considering that there are differences among individual characteristics and the effects generated by Internet use may differ among flexible workers and between flexible workers and formally employed workers,this paper conducts heterogeneity tests across gender,degree,urban and rural areas,and with formally employed workers.Based on the empirical results,this paper has the following conclusions:first,Internet use promotes the participation of flexibly employed people in commercial endowment insurance,and the more frequently they use the Internet,the more likely they are to purchase commercial endowment insurance;second,Internet use promotes the participation of flexibly employed people in commercial endowment insurance by increasing their income level;third,the promotion effect of Internet use on the participation of flexibly employed people in commercial pension Third,there is heterogeneity in the promotion effect of Internet use on the participation of flexibly employed people in commercial endowment insurance,and the effect is more obvious among female,rural,high education flexibly employed people;fourth,Internet use promotes the participation of flexibly employed people in commercial endowment insurance more than that of formally employed people.Finally,based on the current development status of the Internet and the insurance industry in China,this paper proposes corresponding suggestions on how the Internet can better improve the participation of flexible workers in commercial endowment insurance and how to better promote the development of commercial endowment insurance,in order to contribute to the improvement of flexible workers’pension security and the sustainable development of China’s insurance industry.