Intellectualism and the Citizen Coproduction to Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract: Intellectualism is necessary for humankind to overcome major public crises, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Focusing on the data of scientific literacy across 140 cities in China and by employing the ordinary least square method, we tested the effectiveness of “anti-pandemic efforts based on intellectualism.” The findings are: (1) Intellectualism works, and it can achieve results in the citizen coproduction promotion to fight against COVID-19. For every 1% increase in citizens with scientific literacy in the city, citizen coproduction increased by 14.2%. (2) The urban education level and local government ability positively moderates the effect of the citizens' anti-pandemic efforts using intellectualism. (3) The results present a certain degree of heterogeneity at various stages, regions, and cities of different scales. This study responds to the lack of research on intellectualism and co-production; further, it provides novel ideas for improving the effectiveness of citizens' participation in public crisis governance.