Research on the Impact of Smart City Construction on New Quality Productivity - A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the "Smart City" Strategic Pilot

Based on the panel data of 287 prefecture-level cities from 2011 to 2022, this article takes "smart city construction" as a quasi-natural experiment and uses the difference-in-differences model to analyze the impact of smart city construction on new quality productivity. Benchmark analysis indicates that the construction of smart cities has a significant positive impact on new quality productivity. Mechanism analysis indicates that both the level of human capital and the level of science and technology play a mediating role in the impact of smart city construction on new quality productivity. In the heterogeneity test, in terms of urban location heterogeneity, the construction of smart cities in the eastern and western regions has a significant promoting effect on new quality productivity. The significance in the western region is greater than that in the eastern region, while it is not significant in the central region. In the heterogeneity of urban scale, the influence coefficient of large cities is negative and not significant. In medium and small-sized cities, the construction of smart cities has a promoting effect on new quality productivity. The threshold effect indicates that there is a threshold effect in the upgrading of industrial structure. The stronger the level of industrial structure upgrading, the stronger the promoting effect of smart city construction on new quality productive forces. Therefore, it is proposed to promote the construction of new infrastructure related to smart cities, take human capital and scientific and technological levels as important means to enhance the quality of productivity, promote the regional coordinated construction of smart cities, and provide differentiated policy support to regions and industries at different stages of industrial structure upgrading.