Job creation or disruption? Unraveling the effects of smart city construction on corporate employment in China

Bibliographic Data

ID21403720
AuthorsYuqiang Cao (0000-0002-0201-9261, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies), Yong Hu (0000-0002-6841-7940, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies), Qian Liu (0000-0001-7603-2146, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, corresponding author), Meiting Lu (0000-0003-1798-5195, Macquarie University), Yaowen Shan (0000-0003-2156-8722, University of Technology Sydney)
Year2023
Volume195
Pages122783
Publication date2023-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTechnological Forecasting and Social Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0040-1625 • E-ISSN: 1873-5509
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122783
OpenAlexW4385888983
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited69

Previous literature on smart city construction (SCC) has mainly focused on its economic and environmental benefits while largely overlooking its potential adverse consequences, especially on microeconomic units. Using China's SCC pilots as a quasi-natural experiment, this study examines the impact of SCC on corporate hiring decisions and finds that SCC adversely impacts corporate employment. The mechanism analysis suggests that SCC affects corporate employment through factor substitution rather than job creation by promoting digital capitalization and capital and technological factor substitution. Further analyses indicate that SCC primarily reduces the number of low-skilled and non-production employees and has a stronger impact on local private, old, and industrial firms. We also find evidence of labor reallocation effects of SCC. Overall, the results highlight the trade-off between promoting SCC and mitigating employment challenges and the role of data as a new production factor in the digital economy era, providing important policy implications for stakeholders

Business · Capital (architecture) · Capitalization · China · Economics · Job creation · Labour economics · Mechanism (biology) · Production (economics) · Substitution (logic) · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis · Smart Cities and Technologies

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