City Specialization, Urbanization And The Development Of Insurance In China:a Panel Data Analysis Based On The Yangtze River Delta Region

The development of the insurance industry in our country has a long history. Early times the relief and reserve system is the embryonic form of the modern idea of insurance. However, the feudal centralization system and traditional idea that agriculture weighs more than commerce make the development of commodity economy slower which is the economical foundation and social environment of insurance. So the insurance industry especially the commercial insurance is constrained. The burst of the second war stimulated the development of insurance. With the rapid development of economy, various industries have made progress with varying degrees. The insurance as one branch of the financial industry develops and expands itself.But it is true that different economical background can provide different resources and environment for the whole industry. In order to maximize the utilization of resources an industry must take proper strategies to adapt to the whole environment timely. City specialization and urbanization are the inevitable phenomenon when it comes to relatively mature period. It is current economic background which is at different level in different cities. It means that the insurance industry in different cities is facing different environments. If the insurance wants to seek further development, adjusting measurements is necessary.This paper treats the sixteen prefecture-level cities around the Yangtze River Delta Region as the research samples ranging from year 2003 to year 2014. Referring to the past study about city specialization、urbanization and the development of insurance this paper is trying to make progress and establish a panel data regression model to explore the empirical relationship between the three ones. On the basis of the empirical results we want to put forward opinions about the development of insurance. The empirical results are as following. Firstly, there is significant nonlinear correlation between management specialization、R&D specialization、urbanization and the development of insurance. The existing data can’t make out the relationship between the industry specialization and the insurance industry. Secondly, there is significant nonlinear correlation between management specialization R&D specialization、urbanization and life insurance markets. Existing data can’t prove the relationship between industry specialization and the life insurance market. Thirdly, there is significant nonlinear correlation between management specialization and non-life insurance. Existing data can’t prove the relationship between management specialization、R&D specialization-urbanization and non-life insurance. For further analysis, all these core variables promote the development of insurance or life insurance in certain period. So we should divide these prefecture cities according to their degree of specialization or urbanization. Respectively we should make different strategies as following. Firstly, from the national perspective only when the management specialization level、R&D specialization level or urbanization level lays on the insurance-promotion level, can we give priority to this place to obtain insurance resources. Secondly, from the local perspective when the management specialization level、R&D specialization level or urbanization level lays on the life-insurance-promotion level, we should give priority to the life insurance. Thirdly, from the local perspective only when the management specialization can promote the development of non-life insurance, can we give priority to non-life insurance to seek for resource.In addition to provide feasible suggestions according to the empirical results of this study, this paper gives rational explanation for those hypothesis which established in theory but have not been verified in practice. In short, this paper wishes to make contribution to the development of the theory and the promotion of insurance industry.