Abstract

Existing literature has documented an increasing focus on financial resilience to better address the issue of multidimensional poverty in developing regions. The move to financial resilience is a part of a long process that has examined the relationship between poverty and financial access. Yet because financial resilience is a relatively new topic, the specifics of how financial resilience can be fostered using specific financial products has yet to be substantiated. Thus, this study offers an examination of the relationship between life insurance access and financial resilience in a sample of 16 middle-income Latin American countries, the first study of its kind. The objective of the research is to analyze the contribution of life insurance on supporting the development of financial resilience to strengthen the emergent middle-class to continue sustainable and inclusive growth in middle-income Latin America. This study reveals that life insurance access contributes positively and significantly to increasing financial resilience in middle-income Latin America with potentially significant effects on middle class resilience and sustained poverty alleviation.