Paper Title
NATIONAL CULTURE AND THE RISK-TAKING OF PROPERTY-LIABILITY INSURERS AROUND THE WORLD

Abstract
Abstract - National culture, “a collective programming of the mind”, is recently found to have significant impact on firms’ decision-making. This study is the first in the insurance literature to employ Hofstede’s culture measures to investigate their impacts on the risk-taking of property and liability (P/L) insurers around the world. We also examine ifthe world major religions can influence insurer risk taking in a similar context.The empirical results unveil that insurers in high individualism countries tend to have greater risk-taking as expected. However, surprisingly, we find that insurers in high uncertainty-avoidance countries also have greater risk-taking and this result is robust under various model settings. This empirical evidence supports the “demand-risk” hypothesis positing that consumers in high uncertainty-avoidance countries presumably would have greater demand for insuranceand consequently lead to greater insurer risk. Key Words - National Culture, Property And Liability Insurer, Risk-Taking