Per aspera ad astra: The big challenge of consumers' insurance literacy

This paper is a pioneering study on the determinants of customers' insurance knowledge in the Italian market. The analysis considers differences between life and non-life insurance. Our findings show that socio-economic variables (specifically family income and financial fragility) and financial literacy play a fundamental role in explaining consumers' insurance knowledge. This result is confirmed for both life and non-life insurance. Among socio-demographic factors, gender, the number of children under 18 and the level of education are determinants of global insurance knowledge. However, distinguishing between life and non-life insurance knowledge, we find the level of education affects the former, while gender and age influence the latter.