Insurance-market depth and logistics performance in OECD countries: a comparative institutional association

This study examines whether insurance-market depth is associated with national logistics performance in OECD countries. Logistics-performance research usually emphasises customs, infrastructure, trade facilitation and logistics-service capability, while the broader insurance-market conditions under which freight and supply-chain risks are transferred remain underexamined. Using a balanced panel of 33 OECD countries across four Logistics Performance Index (LPI) waves, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018, the study links overall LPI and its six components to insurance density, insurance penetration, retention ratio and non-life insurance share. LPI-wave fixed-effects models with country-clustered standard errors show that logged total insurance density is positively associated with overall LPI and all six LPI components across countries. However, strict country and LPI-wave fixed-effects models do not show a significant within-country relationship. Insurance penetration, retention ratio and non-life insurance share also provide no robust positive evidence once insurance-market depth is considered. The findings therefore support a comparative institutional association: countries in the current-OECD sample with deeper insurance markets tend to have stronger logistics performance, but the evidence does not show that increases in insurance density within a country directly cause logistics-performance improvements. The study contributes by identifying insurance-market depth as an overlooked institutional correlate of logistics performance and by distinguishing insurance density from penetration, retention and market composition.