The Morbid Economics of Grief: Funeral Insurance as a Trojan Horse for Social Insurance Expansion to Zimbabwe's Informal Economy

Abstract

Expansion of social insurance coverage to informal workers‘ demands innovative policy designs. The study examines the feasibility of funeral insurance as a 'Trojan Horse', or gateway, for social insurance expansion to informal workers. This strategy is based on a behavioural observation that while informal workers are unwilling to pay social insurance premiums, they consistently pay funeral insurance premiums regardless of whether they are under-insured at the point of claim. Employing a concurrent mixed methods design, including a structured survey of 350 informal retail workers drawn from a target population of 3 545 in Harare's Magaba informal business district using the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sample determination table and thematic analysis of key informant interviews with 10 purposively selected institutional representatives, the study assesses the feasibility of integrating social insurance and funeral assurance contributions into a composite social protection tool. The study argues that this mortality-driven willingness to pay represents a largely untapped behavioural resource for social insurance enrolment. Study findings suggest that embedding funeral cover as an anchor benefit within a bundled social insurance informal sector scheme appears economically feasible and behaviourally grounded within the sampled context, as funerals are seen as sacralised obligations that bereaved families must fulfil irrespective of economic means. It is concluded that policymakers should combine social insurance and funeral assurance contributions within a unified product architecture, converting the morbid economics of grief into a gateway for sustainable, broad-based social protection coverage.