The impact of economic agglomeration on China’s urban public health

IntroductionThis study aims to explore the impact of economic agglomeration on the urban prosperity through economies of scale and agglomeration, it may also affect the public health of the agglomeration area.MethodsThis paper takes 280 cities in China as the research object, and explores the impact of economic agglomeration on public health through a two-way fixed effects model, instrumental variable method, and generalized moment estimation.ResultsThe results indicate that: (1) the improvement of China’s economic agglomeration can significantly promote urban public health, and economic agglomeration is a prerequisite for the improvement of urban public health, but there is no reverse causal relationship. (2) The enhancement of economic agglomeration in Northeast China has the greatest promotion effect on public health, followed by the eastern, western, and central regions; The economic agglomeration enhancement of the pilot medical group in closely connected cities has a greater promoting effect on public health than the pilot medical group in non-closely connected cities. (3) Empirical results based on micro sample data show that the improvement of economic agglomeration will also promote the increase of the number of public hospitals in cities.DiscussionThis study emphasizes the important role of economic accumulation in the improvement of urban public health and provides empirical support for future economic development policies and practices.