Abstract:
|
Non-life insurance consumption in Thailand has increased significantly in the
past decade. Many factors have contributed to the development of non-life insurance
industry including macroeconomic factors. This research, therefore, aimed to study
the impact of macroeconomic factors on the increasing non-life insurance
consumption in Thailand. Twenty independent variables were gathered from eight
macroeconomic indices, which were published by the Bureau of Trade and Economic
Indices, i.e.: Consumer Price Index, Business Cycle Index, Inflation Cycle Index,
Export Business Situation Index, Consumer Confidence Index, Producer Price Index,
Construction Material Price Index, and Export and Import Price Index. They were
selected to be statistically examined for their potential impacts on non-life insurance
consumption, which was represented by the amount of all directly earned premium of
total non-life insurance consumption by all insurance companies in Thailand,
published on the website of the Office of Insurance Commission (OIC). The research
data was collected on a monthly basis for a 10 year period from 2002 to 2011.
Multiple Regression analysis was used as the research methodology. The result
suggested that four macroeconomic indices, i.e.: Coincident Index (from Business
Cycle Index), Employment Rate (from Export Business Situation Index), Consumer
Confidence Index,and Export Price Index, were found to have animpact on total nonlife insurance consumption in Thailand of around 84%. From this analysis, it can be
concluded that some macroeconomic factors have an impact on non-life insurance
consumption in Thailand.
|
