Research On The Impact Of Digital Infrastructure Construction On Environmental Pollution And Medical Expenditur

China’s economic and social development has made remarkable achievements while facing the double pressure of serious environmental pollution and excessive medical burden.The construction of digital infrastructure will contribute to the transformation and modernization of energy resources,industrial structure and consumption patterns,and is an important initiative to promote green development in China.At the same time,the rapid development of digital infrastructure construction is fostering a deep integration of digital technologies and healthcare,which greatly enhances the protection of people’s health.Therefore,it is important to study the impact of China’s digital infrastructure construction on environmental pollution and residents’ medical expenditure and its mechanism of action for building a green China and a healthy China.To assess the impact of digital economy transformation on urban green development,this paper first constructs a progressive DID model using panel data of prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2018,and conducts a quasi-natural experiment using the “Broadband China”pilot project.It is found that the digital economy significantly reduces the emission of core pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and PM2.5;the digital economy improves environmental pollution by promoting industrial upgrading,stimulating innovation,and optimizing resource allocation,among other paths;there are heterogeneous differences in geographic location,city size,resource endowment,and development level.Secondly,this paper uses the 2010-2018 CFPS data,using the asymptotic difference method and based on the analysis above,to further explore the impact of the environmental effects caused by the construction of digital infrastructure on residents’ healthcare expenditure.The results found that the environmental effects caused by digital infrastructure significantly reduced residents’ healthcare expenditure.In addition,this paper also analyses the direct impact of digital infrastructure construction on China’s healthcare expenditure.The study found that digital infrastructure construction reduced the healthcare expenditure of Chinese residents;the availability of commercial insurance and residents’ self-rated health were two potential mechanisms that affected healthcare expenditure.The impact of digital infrastructure construction on reducing healthcare expenditure varies heterogeneously by age,education,income,and region.In terms of policy implications,China should accelerate the construction of digital infrastructure to enable the development of the digital economy,and actively use the construction of digital infrastructure to reduce polluting emissions.Second,in actively promoting digital infrastructure and “health China” deep integration,reduce the burden of medical costs for residents.