China’s Smart City Development and the Enhancement of Enterprise New Quality Productive Forces

Abstract

This paper constructs a quasi-natural experiment based on China’s batch-by-batch smart city pilot policy implemented between 2012 and 2015. Using a sample of 907 listed companies classified as “specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and Novel” enterprises in China’s Yangtze River Delta region from 2011 to 2023, we employ a multi-period difference-in-differences model to empirically examine the driving effect of smart city development on the new quality productive forces of these firms. The findings reveal that the implementation of the smart city pilot policy has a significant positive impact on enhancing the level of new quality productive forces among the specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and Novel(SSDN) enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region. This conclusion remains robust after undergoing a series of tests, including parallel trend tests.This study not only enriches the research on the microeconomic effects of smart city policies but also provides empirical evidence and practical pathways for local governments to leverage smart city development for the targeted cultivation of new quality productive forces in enterprises.