Can smart city construction improve carbon productivity? —A quasi-natural experiment based on China's smart city pilot

At present, China is facing the dilemma of how to achieve the goal of carbon emission reduction under the premise of ensuring economic growth. As a new urban development model, smart city construction may become the key to solving this problem. Based on a literature review on smart city construction and carbon emissions, this study uses a multi-period difference-in-difference model for empirical analysis, aiming to assess the impact of smart city pilot policy on carbon productivity. We find that: (1) Smart city construction has increased urban carbon productivity by 2.045%. Among them, the promotion effect of eastern and central cities is noticeable, while western cities have a restraining effect. (2) The impact of smart city construction on carbon productivity has a time-lag effect. The pilot policy will take effect in the third year of implementation and reach its maximum value in the fifth year. (3) Smart city construction can improve urban carbon productivity through technological progress, industrial structure upgrading, and energy structure optimization. Therefore, it is recommended to formulate policies from collaborative innovation between cities, optimizing industrial structure, and accelerating renewable energy replacement to achieve sustainable economic development.