The Smart City Policy and Urban Public Service Delivery: A Quantitative Study Under the Background of COVID-19 Pandemic

The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the contributions of smart city policy (SCP) in promoting urban public service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. The effect of the pandemic on urban public service delivery is evaluated using a continuous difference-in-differences (DID) methodology based on a sample of 200 cities in China. On that basis, a triple-difference (DDD) model is built to evaluate the mitigation effect of SCP. The results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly hindered urban public service delivery. SCP is capable of significantly mitigating the negative effect of the pandemic on urban public service delivery. Moreover, cities with a larger scale and better location advantage are subjected to a more significant mitigation effect of SCP, as revealed by the heterogeneity analysis results. The findings of this study provide useful empirical evidence for policy-makers and urban planners and significant practical implications for facilitating smart city construction and boosting urban public service delivery in the future.