Could the Construction of Smart Cities Improve the Equalization of Medical and Health Services—A Quasi-natural Experiment Based on Demand Uncertainty
Based on the panel data of 284 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2018,this paper takes smart city pilot policies as a quasi-natural experiment,uses a multi-period difference-in-difference model and propensity score matching method to analyze the direct impact and indirect transmission of smart cities construction on the equalization of medical and health services.And from the perspective of digital divide and government fiscal expenditure,this pa-per makes an expandable analysis,and finally does a heterogeneity analysis.The results show that the construction of smart cities has significantly improved the level of equality of medical and health services.In more detail,the mechanism test shows that the construction of smart cit-ies mainly improves the level of equality of medical and health services and lowers the demand uncertainty through technological innovation based on the supply side and internet popularization based on the demand side to promote dynamic equilibrium between effective demand and sup-ply.Further research shows that cities with lower grades,coastal areas,and more human capital contribute to the increasing returns to scale effect of smart cities construction on the equalization of medical and health services.The research results provide valuable policy inspiration for deep-ening the smart city pilot policy and improving the equalization level of medical and health serv-ices driven by digital economy.
smart citiesmedical and health servicesequalization
万方数据
