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

Research output: Journal article publication › Journal article › Academic research › 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
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2021.109975
Publication status	Published - Sept 2021

Keywords

Insurance
Rural household
Superstition

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Finance
Economics and Econometrics

UN SDGs

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

More information

10.1016/j.econlet.2021.109975

http://hdl.handle.net/10397/94384

Cite this

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title = "Superstition and farmers{\textquoteright} life insurance spending",

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'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 - Liu, Yun

AU - Zhang, Yifei

AU - Chen, Xin

AU - Yang, Yuxin

PY - 2021/9

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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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ER -

Superstition and farmers’ life insurance spending

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

More information

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