Enhancing export resilience through smart cities: a city-level quasi-natural experiment in China

Hongliang Li, Qing Zhang and Mingtao Wang

Applied Economics, 2025, vol. 57, issue 37, 5628-5646

Abstract: Faced with currently numerous uncertainties at home and abroad, the construction of new infrastructure plays a critical role in enhancing region’s ability to cope with external shocks. Based on resilience perspective, this paper takes smart city pilot as a quasi-natural experiment and utilizes time-varying difference-in-difference (DID) model to investigate the policy effect on city export resilience in ChinA. Research shows that smart city pilot significantly improves city’s anti-risk ability after external shocks, which is manifested as stronger export resilience in pilot cities. Mechanism tests show that smart city pilot promotes export resilience through diversification, efficiency-improved, and innovation-driven channels. Moreover, the effect of smart city pilot is more evident on cities in central and western regions, as well as exporting to high-income countries. These findings shed new insights into the relationship between the smart city pilot and city export behaviour and provide references for Chinese government to promote export upgrading in the post-crisis erA.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2024.2364943

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