Research on the Impact of Smart City Construction on the Development of Green Economy

The development of green economy is one of the core essences to realize Chinese path to modernization. Based on China’s provincial panel data from 2011-2021, this paper uses the entropy weight method to measure the smart city construction index, which includes three dimensions: digitalization, intelligence and informatization; Secondly, a benchmark regression model was used to explore the effect of smart city construction on the development of green economy. Furthermore, a mediation effect model and a threshold regression model were constructed to explore the indirect and nonlinear effects of smart city construction on the development of green economy under the constraint variables of energy utilization efficiency and manufacturing intelligence. Finally, research has shown that the construction of smart cities has shown a positive and direct role in the development of green economy, with a gradient decreasing effect of “western>central>eastern”; The construction of smart cities can indirectly enhance the development of green economy in the region by improving energy utilization efficiency; Based on the characteristics of regional heterogeneity, the construction of smart cities has different threshold effects on the development of regional green economy. When the level of manufacturing intelligence is lower than the threshold value, the construction of smart cities can have a more favorable and positive impact. During the strategic intersection period between smart city construction and the “dual carbon” goal, this article provides scientific basis and theoretical reference for achieving Chinese style green modernization.