 Digitalization, income inequality, and public health: Evidence from developing countriesJing Wang and Yubing Xu Technology in Society, 2023, vol. 73, issue C Abstract: 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. Keywords: Digitalization; Public health; Income inequality; Developing countries (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:teinso:v:73:y:2023:i:c:s0160791x23000155 DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102210 Access Statistics for this article Technology in Society is currently edited by Charla Griffy-Brown More articles in Technology in Society from Elsevier |
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