Digital economy and the medical and health service supply in China

Abstract

The impact of the digital economy on the healthcare sector is becoming increasingly profound. This article focuses on the relationship between the development of China’s digital economy and medical and health services supply. Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2021, the CRITIC weight method was applied to measure the supply capacity of medical and health services and the level of digital economy development, and the kernel density estimation method and Dagum Gini coefficient method was used to characterize the evolutionary trends and regional differences. Additionally, a two-way fixed-effects model is adopted to investigate the impact of digital economy development on medical and health services supply. The results show that both the supply capacity of healthcare services and the level of digital economy development have been increasing continuously in terms of evolutionary trends. From the perspective of regional differences, compared to the supply level of healthcare services, the regional differences in digital economy development are more significant. The intra-regional differences in medical and health services supply are greater than the inter-regional differences, while the development of the digital economy exhibits the opposite trend. The findings of this paper provide supports for China to enhance the development level of digital economy and improve supply of medical and health service.