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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Economics and Management
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1457801
This article is part of the Research Topic Artificial Intelligence in Environmental Engineering and Ecology: Towards Smart and Sustainable Cities View all 9 articles

Can Smart City Construction Be the Answer to Sustainable Development? Evidence from Chinese Corporates

Provisionally accepted
Weihui Peng Weihui Peng 1*Jie Li Jie Li 1Xiang Ren Xiang Ren 2*
  • 1 Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China
  • 2 Qilu Institute of Technology (QIT), Jinan, Shandong Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The construction of smart cities plays a pivotal role in promoting regional sustainability by utilizing technology-driven urban development in the digital era. This study employs the difference-in-differences model to empirically analyze the impact of the smart city pilot policy on corporate carbon intensity, using data from Chinese A-share listed corporates from 2009 to 2021. The findings are as follows: First, the smart city pilot policy significantly reduces corporate carbon intensity in pilot cities, and this conclusion remains robust after a series of sensitivity tests. Second, the policy exhibits heterogeneous effects on corporate carbon intensity across different industries and city locations, with more pronounced effects observed in central cities, traditional industries, and heavily polluting industries. Third, mechanism analysis reveals that the policy reduces corporate carbon intensity through three channels: promoting technological innovation, increasing external market attention, and providing ex-ante government subsidies.

    Keywords: Smart city, sustainability, corporates carbon intensity, Difference-in-differences, Mechanism

    Received: 01 Jul 2024; Accepted: 29 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Peng, Li and Ren. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Weihui Peng, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang, 550004, Guizhou Province, China
    Xiang Ren, Qilu Institute of Technology (QIT), Jinan, 250202, Shandong Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.