ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Health Economics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1565694
This article is part of the Research TopicSustainable and Mission-oriented Innovation in Economic Systems and Governance for Equitable Global Health and WellbeingView all 31 articles
How does the globalization process improve population health? An analysis from the perspective of economic complexity
Provisionally accepted
- 1Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
- 2Zhejiang Institute of Tianjin University, Ningbo, China
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The comprehensive connectivity brought about by globalization and the health of local populations exhibit a contradictory relationship, which has become increasingly complex, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to introduce a new perspective of economic complexity to explore the complex relationship between globalization and population health at the economic level. Using an unbalanced panel dataset from 179 countries/regions between 1995 and 2021, this study investigates the mechanisms and contextual conditions linking globalization to population health from the perspective of economic complexity. Our results suggest that globalization is generally associated with improved health outcomes, whereas economic globalization, when viewed in a subdimensional manner, shows a negative correlation with population health. By framing economic complexity as a proxy variable for local production capacity or industrial structure, this study offers preliminary evidence on how globalization interacts with structural economic factors to shape health outcomes. Specifically, considering the economic structure as an influence channel, economic complexity plays a mechanistic role in the relationship between globalization and health, with higher complexity outlook levels potentially strengthening the positive association. These findings, while subject to the limitations of cross-country aggregated data, provide insights for policymakers to balance global integration with health system preparedness.
Keywords: Globalization, population health, economic complexity, complexity outlook, Mechanism
Received: 23 Jan 2025; Accepted: 28 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Zhu, Yang and Gu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lihua Yang, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
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