How does digital infrastructure affect residents' healthcare expenditures? Evidence from Chinese microdata

Frontiers in Public Health

Public Health

Tianqi Wu¹  Nianchi Zhou¹  Huichao Han²  Chenxi Hai² 

[1] School of Business, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, China;null;

关键词: healthcare expenditure;    digital infrastructure;    Broadband China;    commercial insurance availability;    residents' self-rated health;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpubh.2023.1122718

 received in 2022-12-13, accepted in 2023-04-03,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Healthcare expenditure is only one of the heavy burdens that families face in developing countries. Current research mainly focuses on analyzing the effects of financial policy. There is a lack of studies that examine the understanding and assessment of the impact of digital infrastructure on this issue. In this study, we used the Broadband China policy as a quasi-natural experiment to explore the impact of digital infrastructure on residents' healthcare expenditures in China. Using the differences-in-differences (DID) model and micro-survey data, we found that digital infrastructure has a positive impact on reducing the burden of healthcare expenditure in China. Our findings indicate that residents in cities can save up to 18.8% on healthcare expenses following large-scale digital infrastructure construction. Through mechanism analysis, we found that digital infrastructure reduces residents' healthcare expenditures by improving both commercial insurance availability and the healthcare efficiency of residents. In addition, the effects of digital infrastructure on reducing healthcare expenditure are more pronounced among middle-aged individuals, those with low levels of education, and those with low incomes, which indicates this digital construction wave helps bridge the social gap between the poor and the rich. This study provides compelling evidence of the positive impact of digital society construction on social health and wellbeing.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Han, Hai, Wu and Zhou.