Study on the Spatial Effect of Smart City Construction on Green Total Factor Productivity

Smart cities, a new kind of urbanization, offer a means of achieving the condition in which environmental conservation and economic growth are mutually beneficial. As a result, it is important to think about whether and how the development of smart cities might support the high-quality growth of urban economies. Based on the panel data of 163 prefecture-level cities in China from 2009-2018, the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of each prefecture-level city is measured using the SBM-GML model, and the appropriate spatial econometric model is screened by various types of tests. The spatial effect of smart city construction on GFTP is studied, and it is concluded that the pilot cities have a significant positive spatial spillover effect. The decomposition econometric model also shows that the pilot cities have a significant positive spatial spillover effect, and it also indicating that the smart city construction can also drive the surrounding cities to jointly improve the quality of economic development. Finally, the robustness of the spatial effect of smart city policy is also verified by changing the spatial measurement model and the type of spatial weight matrix, which also shows that the results of the spatial spillover effect of smart city construction are reliable.