Culture and integration of Eurozone life insurance markets
研究了国家文化（个人主义、信任、等级观念）如何影响欧元区七个寿险市场在十六年间的整合，发现集体主义文化提升成本与收入绩效及市场整合，信任在金融危机中促进整合，平等主义在非危机时期起作用。
This paper provides the first evidence on the role of national culture in the integration of Eurozone life insurance markets. It analyzes seven markets over a sixteen-year sample period that includes the financial crisis. We focus on three cultural values, which are individualism, trust, and hierarchy. The results indicate that collectivism culture increases cost and revenue performance and integration of Eurozone life insurance markets. Trust contributes to this integration, particularly in financial crisis, and egalitarian culture facilitates it in non-crisis time. We find that these relations prevail for unaffiliated single companies, but they weaken or do not even hold for groups of insurers. Our findings are robust with tests designed to alleviate endogeneity concerns.