This study provides the first empirical evidence of an asymmetric effect of life insurance
development on life expectancy in Cameroon, a country where life expectancy at birth remains at
63.8 years in 2023, significantly below international standards. Drawing on the theory of human
capital and the health production function developed by Grossman (1972), we posit that the
relationship between life insurance market development and longevity is nonlinear, characterized
by a ratchet effect where gains in health capital are partially irreversible. To test this hypothesis, we
employ the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach and the nonlinear ARDL (NARDL)
model developed by Shin et al. (2014), using annual data covering the period 1992–2020. The
analysis is complemented by the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) method to ensure
structural robustness of the long-run estimates. The empirical results reveal a significant long-run
cointegrating relationship: only expansions of the life insurance market significantly improve
longevity, while contractions have no statistically detectable effect. This fundamental asymmetry
suggests that life insurance development creates permanent improvements in health outcomes that
persist even during subsequent economic downturns. These findings definitively reject the
conventional symmetry hypothesis and highlight the structural and stabilizing role of life insurance
in protecting human capital. The policy implications call for differentiated interventions according
to the economic cycle and a targeted market penetration strategy to maximize sustainable health
gains in emerging economies, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa where insurance markets remain
largely underdeveloped.