“Smart Cities in Europe” Revisited: A Meta-Analysis of Smart City Economic Impacts

ABSTRACT Following up on a two decades-long debate on Smart Cities, this article provides quantitative evidence regarding the impact on urban economic outcomes of the adoption of Smart City strategies in planning and managing modern cities. In order to achieve this aim, a meta-analysis of quantitative and modeling studies is presented as a systematic synthesis tool, based on a keyword search on Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus data bases. Our meta-analytical modeling results demonstrate significant geographical heterogeneity in the assessed impacts, and suggest that a relevant role is played by whether urban smartness is interpreted and pursued in a holistic or digital-only orientation. Suggestions for further research are provided as well.