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. 2023 May:73:102210.
doi: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102210. Epub 2023 Feb 22.

Digitalization, income inequality, and public health: Evidence from developing countries

Jing Wang  1 , Yubing Xu  1
Affiliations

Digitalization, income inequality, and public health: Evidence from developing countries

Jing Wang et al. Technol Soc. 2023 May.

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: Developing countries; Digitalization; Income inequality; Public health.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The impact mechanism of digitalization on public health.
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