Papers presented by Robin Pearson since 2019

2024 Providence, Rhode Island

"The Marketing of Life Insurance in Turkey and China during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries "

Abstract:

This paper explores how and why Euro-American life insurance companies crossed borders to sell their products for the first time in non-western markets. It contributes to the theoretical literature on international business, while also providing a pioneering historical study of an aspect of the global diffusion of this key financial service. We compare the operations of life insurers in two contrasting but also, in several ways, comparable states, late Ottoman Turkey and late Qing China. How did insurance companies accommodate to local traditions of saving and risk-sharing? How did their agents, brokers and branch office managers sell contracts for life insurance when confronted with non-actuarial valuations of life and death? What market opportunities presented themselves and what challenges did they face in selling insurance to both native and ex-patriate populations. Why were some companies more successful than others, and how did they respond to the rise of competition from domestic insurance companies and external political and economic challenges?

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