This study constructs a simple model to demonstrate that life insurance and financial development simultaneously affect economic growth. We provide empirical evidence on the model’s critical prediction. By analysing panel data for 17 advanced European countries from 1980 to 2015, the results show that the effect of private credit on real economic growth is negative in both the long and short run. The negative finance–growth nexus may be due to excessive financing in European countries. The financial crises that occurred during the study period may also have contributed to the negative effects. We find that an increase in the consumption of life insurance is a viable and long-term policy since life insurance penetration promotes long-term economic growth but is not obvious in the short term. Finally, life insurance development is a panacea in the finance–growth nexus since it not only helps moderate long-term real growth volatility but also absorbs the side effect of private credit on real economic growth.

本研究构建了一个简单的模型来证明人寿保险和金融发展同时影响经济增长。我们为模型的关键预测提供了经验证据。通过对1980-2015年欧洲17个发达国家的面板数据进行分析，结果表明，私人信贷对实体经济增长的长期和短期影响均为负。负的金融-增长关系可能是由于欧洲国家的过度融资。研究期间发生的金融危机也可能导致了负面影响。我们发现增加人寿保险消费是一个可行的长期政策，因为人寿保险深度促进长期经济增长，但在短期内并不明显。最后，