Wang Jing, Xu Yubing
College of Economics and Management, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, PR China.
Technol Soc. 2023 May;73:102210. doi: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102210. Epub 2023 Feb 22.
The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the awareness and demand of public health worldwide. Based on the panel data of 81 developing countries from 2002 to 2019, this study probes into the effect of digitalization on public health and explores the mechanism through which digitalization affects public health from the perspective of income inequality. The results show that digitalization significantly enhances public health in developing countries, and this conclusion still holds after the robustness test. The heterogeneity analysis based on geographic location and income level indicates that the enhancing effect of digitalization on public health is most evident in Africa and middle-income countries. A further mechanism analysis suggests that digitalization can positively impact public health through the intermediary channel of suppressing income inequality. This study enriches the research on digitalization and public health and provides insights for comprehending public health needs and the powerful empowering effects of digitalization.
新冠疫情提高了全球对公共卫生的认识并增加了相关需求。基于2002年至2019年81个发展中国家的面板数据，本研究探讨了数字化对公共卫生的影响，并从收入不平等的角度探索了数字化影响公共卫生的机制。结果表明，数字化显著提升了发展中国家的公共卫生水平，且该结论在稳健性检验后依然成立。基于地理位置和收入水平的异质性分析表明，数字化对公共卫生的增强作用在非洲和中等收入国家最为明显。进一步的机制分析表明，数字化可通过抑制收入不平等的中介渠道对公共卫生产生积极影响。本研究丰富了关于数字化与公共卫生的研究，并为理解公共卫生需求以及数字化的强大赋能作用提供了见解。
