IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v77y2024ics0160791x24001106.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Aggravating or alleviating? Smart city construction and urban inequality in China

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Zhen
  • Gao, Weijun
  • Han, Qing
  • Qi, Liyan

Abstract

A series of studies have been conducted in recent years to address the academic and policy debate on smart cities, some of which argue that the adoption of smart technologies to manage cities can exacerbate inequalities in urban development by favoring the classes that benefit from this model. However, to date, the links between smart cities and urban inequality (UI) has never been empirically tested at the city level of statistical inference. Therefore, with a combination of the difference-in-difference (DID) model and heterogeneity-robustness estimate, a quasi-natural experiment concerned with China's smart city policy was carried out. The following are the primary conclusions: First, smart city construction alleviates urban inequality. Following several robustness tests, the finding is still reliable. Second, the effect of smart city construction on inequality is heterogeneous. Third, there is a significant positive spatial spillover effect of the impact of smart city construction on inequality. Therefore, it is suggested to formulate targeted smart city development strategies from the following aspects: strengthening the overall planning and strategic layout of smart city projects, focusing on social equity and protecting the interests of vulnerable groups, improving regional cooperation mechanisms, attracting and cultivating innovative talents, giving priority to the impact of heterogeneous cities, and emphasizing the participation and autonomy of grassroots communities, so as to tap the potential of digital technology in sustainable cities and societies.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Zhen & Gao, Weijun & Han, Qing & Qi, Liyan, 2024. "Aggravating or alleviating? Smart city construction and urban inequality in China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:77:y:2024:i:c:s0160791x24001106
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2024.102562
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X24001106
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2024.102562?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James Bessen, 2018. "Artificial Intelligence and Jobs: The Role of Demand," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda, pages 291-307, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Luis Ayala & Javier Martín‐Román & Juan Vicente, 2020. "The contribution of the spatial dimension to inequality: A counterfactual analysis for OECD countries," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 447-477, June.
    3. Angus Deaton, 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 113-158, March.
    4. Margarita Angelidou, 2017. "The Role of Smart City Characteristics in the Plans of Fifteen Cities," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 3-28, October.
    5. Lee, Hasik & Park, Ho-Chul & Kho, Seung-Young & Kim, Dong-Kyu, 2019. "Assessing transit competitiveness in Seoul considering actual transit travel times based on smart card data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    6. Zhenxiong Huang & Hangtian Xu & Jianming Li & Nengsheng Luo, 2020. "Has highway construction narrowed the urban–rural income gap? Evidence from Chinese cities," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 705-723, June.
    7. Ashenfelter, Orley C, 1978. "Estimating the Effect of Training Programs on Earnings," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 60(1), pages 47-57, February.
    8. Rodrik, Dani, 1999. "Where Did All the Growth Go? External Shocks, Social Conflict, and Growth Collapses," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 385-412, December.
    9. Michael R. Betz & Mark D. Partridge & Belal Fallah, 2016. "Smart cities and attracting knowledge workers: Which cities attract highly-educated workers in the 21st century?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(4), pages 819-841, November.
    10. Edward L. Glaeser & Matt Resseger & Kristina Tobio, 2009. "Inequality In Cities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 617-646, October.
    11. Chen, Jun, 2023. "Mitigating nitrogen dioxide air pollution: The roles and effect of national smart city pilots in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PA).
    12. Anderson, Edward, 2005. "Openness and inequality in developing countries: A review of theory and recent evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1045-1063, July.
    13. Molero-Simarro, Ricardo, 2017. "Inequality in China revisited. The effect of functional distribution of income on urban top incomes, the urban-rural gap and the Gini index, 1978–2015," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 101-117.
    14. Dehejia, Rajeev, 2005. "Practical propensity score matching: a reply to Smith and Todd," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1-2), pages 355-364.
    15. Robert G. Hollands, 2015. "Critical interventions into the corporate smart city," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 8(1), pages 61-77.
    16. Lu, Haiyan & Zhao, Pengjun & Hu, Haoyu & Zeng, Liangen & Wu, Kai Sheng & Lv, Di, 2022. "Transport infrastructure and urban-rural income disparity: A municipal-level analysis in China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    17. Neil Lee & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2013. "Innovation and spatial inequality in Europe and USA," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, January.
    18. Luo, Chuliang & Li, Shi & Sicular, Terry, 2020. "The long-term evolution of national income inequality and rural poverty in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    19. Mora, Luca & Gerli, Paolo & Ardito, Lorenzo & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio, 2023. "Smart city governance from an innovation management perspective: Theoretical framing, review of current practices, and future research agenda," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    20. Appio, Francesco Paolo & Lima, Marcos & Paroutis, Sotirios, 2019. "Understanding Smart Cities: Innovation ecosystems, technological advancements, and societal challenges," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 1-14.
    21. Rob Kitchin, 2015. "Making sense of smart cities: addressing present shortcomings," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 8(1), pages 131-136.
    22. Yannick Marchand & Jean Dubé & Sébastien Breau, 2020. "Exploring the Causes and Consequences of Regional Income Inequality in Canada," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 96(2), pages 83-107, March.
    23. Guojun He & Yuhang Pan & Takanao Tanaka, 2020. "The short-term impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on urban air pollution in China," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(12), pages 1005-1011, December.
    24. Shima Hamidi & Ahoura Zandiatashbar, 2019. "Does urban form matter for innovation productivity? A national multi-level study of the association between neighbourhood innovation capacity and urban sprawl," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(8), pages 1576-1594, June.
    25. Tang, Jianjun & Gong, Jiaowei & Ma, Wanglin & Rahut, Dil Bahadur, 2022. "Narrowing urban–rural income gap in China: The role of the targeted poverty alleviation program," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 74-90.
    26. Appio, Francesco Paolo & Lima, Marcos & Paroutis, Sotirios, 2019. "Understanding Smart Cities: Innovation ecosystems, technological advancements, and societal challenges," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 1-14.
    27. Cheong, Tsun Se & Wu, Yanrui, 2014. "The impacts of structural transformation and industrial upgrading on regional inequality in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 339-350.
    28. Aline Suter & Lars Kaiser & Martin Dušek & Florin Hasler & Simone Tappert, 2024. "Digital Rights to the City: Local Practices and Negotiations of Urban Space on Decidim," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9.
    29. Andrea Caragliu & Chiara F. Del Bo, 2022. "Smart cities and urban inequality," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(7), pages 1097-1112, July.
    30. Calvillo, C.F. & Sánchez-Miralles, A. & Villar, J., 2016. "Energy management and planning in smart cities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 273-287.
    31. Israilidis, John & Odusanya, Kayode & Mazhar, Muhammad Usman, 2021. "Exploring knowledge management perspectives in smart city research: A review and future research agenda," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    32. David Castells‐Quintana & Vicente Royuela & Fabian Thiel, 2019. "Inequality and sustainable development: Insights from an analysis of the human development index," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 448-460, May.
    33. Fennell, Shailaja & Kaur, Prabhjot & Jhunjhunwala, Ashok & Narayanan, Deapika & Loyola, Charles & Bedi, Jaskiran & Singh, Yaadveer, 2018. "Examining linkages between Smart Villages and Smart Cities: Learning from rural youth accessing the internet in India," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(10), pages 810-823.
    34. Deepti Ahuja & Deepak Pandit, 2020. "Public Expenditure and Economic Growth: Evidence from the Developing Countries," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 9(3), pages 228-236, September.
    35. Martin Korpi, 2008. "Does size of local labour markets affect wage inequality? a rank-size rule of income distribution," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 211-237, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Teng, Qiuling & Bai, Xiaoyu & Apuke, Oberiri Destiny, 2024. "Modelling the factors that affect the intention to adopt emerging digital technologies for a sustainable smart world city," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sha, Kritika & Taeihagh, Araz & De Jong, Martin, 2024. "Governing disruptive technologies for inclusive development in cities: A systematic literature review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    2. Tang, Jianjun & Gong, Jiaowei & Ma, Wanglin & Rahut, Dil Bahadur, 2022. "Narrowing urban–rural income gap in China: The role of the targeted poverty alleviation program," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 74-90.
    3. Marchesani, Filippo & Masciarelli, Francesca & Bikfalvi, Andrea, 2023. "Smart city as a hub for talent and innovative companies: Exploring the (dis) advantages of digital technology implementation in cities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    4. Mora, Luca & Gerli, Paolo & Ardito, Lorenzo & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio, 2023. "Smart city governance from an innovation management perspective: Theoretical framing, review of current practices, and future research agenda," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    5. Munan Li, 2019. "Visualizing the studies on smart cities in the past two decades: a two-dimensional perspective," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(2), pages 683-705, August.
    6. Maria Vincenza Ciasullo & Orlando Troisi & Mara Grimaldi & Daniele Leone, 2020. "Multi-level governance for sustainable innovation in smart communities: an ecosystems approach," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 1167-1195, December.
    7. Johannes Stübinger & Lucas Schneider, 2020. "Understanding Smart City—A Data-Driven Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-23, October.
    8. Oleg Golubchikov & Mary J. Thornbush, 2022. "Smart Cities as Hybrid Spaces of Governance: Beyond the Hard/Soft Dichotomy in Cyber-Urbanization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-12, August.
    9. Renata Biadacz & Marek Biadacz, 2021. "Implementation of “Smart” Solutions and An Attempt to Measure Them: A Case Study of Czestochowa, Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-28, September.
    10. Neil Lee & Paul Sissons & Katy Jones, 2016. "The Geography of Wage Inequality in British Cities," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(10), pages 1714-1727, October.
    11. Bencsik, Barbara & Palmié, Maximilian & Parida, Vinit & Wincent, Joakim & Gassmann, Oliver, 2023. "Business models for digital sustainability: Framework, microfoundations of value capture, and empirical evidence from 130 smart city services," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    12. Clement, Dr. Jessica & Crutzen, Prof. Nathalie, 2021. "How Local Policy Priorities Set the Smart City Agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    13. Eusebio Scornavacca & Francesco Paolone & Stefano Za & Laura Martiniello, 2020. "Investigating the entrepreneurial perspective in smart city studies," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 1197-1223, December.
    14. Diana Barros & Aurora A. C. Teixeira, 2021. "Unlocking the black box: A comprehensive meta-analysis of the main determinants of within-region income inequality," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 41(1), pages 55-93, February.
    15. Yigitcanlar, Tan & Kamruzzaman, Md., 2018. "Does smart city policy lead to sustainability of cities?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 49-58.
    16. Barba-Sánchez, Virginia & Arias-Antúnez, Enrique & Orozco-Barbosa, Luis, 2019. "Smart cities as a source for entrepreneurial opportunities: Evidence for Spain," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    17. Bundgaard, Lasse & Borrás, Susana, 2021. "City-wide scale-up of smart city pilot projects: Governance conditions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    18. Constance Carr & Markus Hesse, 2020. "When Alphabet Inc. Plans Toronto’s Waterfront: New Post-Political Modes of Urban Governance," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 69-83.
    19. Junjie Liu & Xiaomeng Liu & Jiaoping Yang, 2024. "TOE Configuration Analysis of Smart City Construction in China Under the Concept of Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-15, December.
    20. Filippo Corsini & Rafael Laurenti & Franziska Meinherz & Francesco Paolo Appio & Luca Mora, 2019. "The Advent of Practice Theories in Research on Sustainable Consumption: Past, Current and Future Directions of the Field," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-19, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:77:y:2024:i:c:s0160791x24001106. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.