The Impact of Pilot Policies for Smart Cities on Carbon Emissions in Cities along the Eastern Coast of China

Based on panel data from 111 prefecture level cities in the eastern coastal region of China from 2006 to 2021, this article regards the three batches of smart city pilot policies implemented since 2012 as a "quasi natural experiment", uses the asymptotic difference in differencesAA (DID) method to explore their impact on carbon emissions in the eastern coastal region of China, and verifies the scientific and credibility of the research results through multiple robustness tests. Then, heterogeneity analysis and mechanism analysis are conducted to explore the impact mechanism of smart cities on carbon reduction according to policies. The research results indicate that, firstly, the pilot policy of smart cities is beneficial for reducing carbon emissions in the eastern coastal areas of China, and this result remains robust after robustness tests such as PSM-DID (propensity score matching), placebo test, and exclusion of other policy interferences. Secondly, the pilot policies of smart cities have different carbon emission reduction effects in cities with different characteristics, and have more significant carbon emission reduction effects on small cities, non resource-based cities, and high GDP cities. Thirdly, the pilot policy of smart cities promotes the green and low-carbon development of cities in the eastern coastal areas of China by enhancing technological level and optimizing industrial structure.