Construction of smart city and enhancement of urban convenience: A quasi-natural experiment based on a smart city pilot

Based on the POI open data of prefecture-level cities across China from 2012 to 2021, the causal relationship between construction of smart city and enhancement of urban convenience is identified by using the multi-temporal DID method. Through research, it is found that smart city construction significantly enhances urban convenience. According to the mechanism test, smart city construction promotes the enhancement of urban living convenience through resource allocation effect, innovation driving effect and entrepreneurship promotion effect; In addition, the heterogeneity test demonstrates that there are significant differences in the level of responses to policy due to different location factors, population size and functional positioning of each city, for example, the effects of policy are more obvious in central and western cities, non-coastal cities, cities with population of less than 3 million and non-resource-based cities. The findings confirm that the construction of smart cities can effectively enhance the convenience and improve the living standard of urban residents. Therefore, strengthen the cultivation of entrepreneurial and innovative talents, advancing the construction of new infrastructure, and promoting balanced regional development holds the key to promote the construction of modern generation in cities and effectively improve the process of building digital China.