Insurance, Inequality, and Social Protection Architecture in Nigeria: An Interdisciplinary Analysis

This dissertation undertakes an interdisciplinary analysis of the relationship between insurance market development, income inequality, and social protection architecture in Nigeria, integrating insurance economics, development economics, and social policy theory. The distributional consequences of insurance market development have received limited attention in African academic literature, despite significant theoretical reason to expect that insurance penetration patterns may exacerbate inequality by concentrating benefits among already-advantaged income groups while excluding the poor. This study employs a multi-method design combining nationally representative household survey data from the Nigeria Living Standards Survey, NAICOM market data, state-level social protection program records, and in-depth qualitative fieldwork in six states representing Nigeria's geopolitical zones. Quantitative analysis applies instrumental variable regression and distributional decomposition methods to estimate income-conditional insurance benefits distribution and test whether insurance access mediates the relationship between income shocks and long-run consumption inequality. The qualitative fieldwork employs grounded theory methodology to develop thick descriptions of insurance exclusion mechanisms operating at community levels. An original Social Insurance Architecture Index for Nigeria is constructed and validated. Preliminary analysis anticipates documenting pro-rich bias in voluntary insurance benefits distribution and identifying significant insurance-social protection interaction effects. Keywords: Insurance, Inequality, Social Protection, Nigeria, Distributional Analysis.