Sustainable social development promotes COVID-19 pandemic control
Shilan Feng,
Yingjia Zhai,
Wendong Wei,
Ya Tan,
Yong Geng,
Weiye Nie
Affiliations
Shilan Feng
School of Marxism, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Yingjia Zhai
Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Wendong Wei
School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; SJTU-UNIDO Joint Institute of Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; China Institute for Urban Governance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200040, China; Corresponding author
Ya Tan
School of International Trade and Economics, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing 100029, China; Corresponding author
Yong Geng
School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; SJTU-UNIDO Joint Institute of Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; China Institute for Urban Governance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200040, China; Corresponding author
Weiye Nie
School of Marxism, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Summary: The rapid spread of COVID-19 had a negative impact on public health and economic recovery worldwide. There is a large and growing literature on pandemic prevention and control. However, these existing studies seldom focus on the role of sustainable social development in this process. By setting specifications of fixed-effect models based on the score data of sustainable development goals (SDG) and infection case data from 257 Chinese cities, we evaluate the positive effect of sustainable social development on pandemic control. Our results show that sustainable social development leads to a remarkable improvement in pandemic prevention and control, especially for SDG4 (Quality Education) and SDG5 (Gender Equality). Significant positive effects of sustainable social development still exist in the post-pandemic era. This study highlights the importance of promoting social SDGs by linking them with pandemic prevention and control and suggests region-specific policies based on the heterogeneous analysis results.
