ESG Disclosure and Financial Inclusion in Nepalese Insurance Industry: a Comparative Study
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Abstract
This paper analyses the environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure framework and financial inclusion within the selected Nepal insurance companies across the FY 2019/20-2023/ 24. Through a positivist and deductive research method, the study is designed as a comparative longitudinal and archival research design through secondary data of the annual reports of Nepal Life Insurance, Shikhar Insurance, and Himalayan Everest Insurance. Binary disclosure indices are used to measure ESG disclosure and financial inclusion and are analysed using descriptive statistics, comparative analysis, rankings, trend analysis, and comparisons between insurers in SPSS. The findings indicate that there are firm-level variations in ESG reporting and financial inclusion and that governance reporting prevails over ESG reporting and environmental reporting. The programs of financial inclusion differ among insurers and there is a positive relationship between ESG disclosure intensity and financial inclusion practices. The distinctions between life and non-life insurers are perceived mainly in financial inclusion. The research provides firm-level data on the alignment of ESG and financial inclusion in the Nepalese insurance industry
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Appendix
Appendix 1: Declaration by Authors
I/we (Full Name of the Author's)
Iswor Luitel
Dr. Pranami Chakravorty
It is hereby declared that we are the author of the paper titled: “ESG Disclosure and Financial Inclusion in Nepali Insurance: A Comparative Study”.
We further declare that this paper has been submitted only to the Journal of the Insurance Institute of India and that it has not been previously published nor submitted for publication elsewhere.
We accept responsibility for the statistics presented in the article, and the Institute may refer specific queries about the statistics to me/us as needed.
We have duly acknowledged and referenced all the sources used for this paper. We further authorize the editors to make necessary changes in this paper to make it suitable for publication.
We undertake to accept full responsibility for any misstatement regarding ownership of this article.