A Study On The Impact Of Smart City Pilot Policies On The Level Of Urban Governance

With the accelerating urbanisation process and the rapid development of information technology,the traditional means of urban governance can no longer meet the needs of environmental pollution,traffic congestion,inefficiency and many other "urban diseases" to solve the dilemma,the introduction of information technology means in urban operation,technology to enable new urban governance has become a new trend in urban development.As a fusion of urban construction and information technology,smart cities use cloud computing,big data,the Internet and other technical means to promote the wisdom of many areas of the city,through intelligent tools to achieve the sharing of urban information,accurate perception of the urban environment and efficient handling of urban problems,to accurately grasp the needs of governance,promote the effective collaboration of governance bodies,and thus improve the quality and efficiency of urban governance,to achieve a high level of urban governance and sustainable development.In 2012,in order to explore the scientific construction,operation,management,service and development of smart cities,China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development decided to launch a national smart city pilot project,and between 2012 and 2014,three batches of national smart city pilot projects were announced as pilot cities at the prefectural and county levels.Now,many years have passed since the implementation of the smart city pilot policy,what is the actual effect of the operation of the smart city pilot policy? Has it produced a smart governance effect? Has it effectively improved the level of governance in cities? What is the extent of its contribution? Under what paths have the policy effects been generated? Are there differences in policy effects between different city sizes and levels of cities? All these questions need to be answered.Therefore,based on the panel data of 280 prefecture-level cities from 2011 to 2020,this paper constructs an index system for assessing the level of urban governance in the context of smart city construction by integrating the technical dimension of smart cities and the basic dimension of urban governance.On the basis of using the entropy value method to measure the comprehensive index of the level of governance of each prefecture-level city over the years,a multi-period double difference model is used to analyse the smart city pilot policy from the perspective of the governance effect The study found that: the policy effects of the smart city pilot policy were not only effective,but also effective.The study finds that: the smart governance effect of the smart city pilot policy is obvious and has significantly improved the level of urban governance;the size of the smart governance effect of the smart city pilot policy differs according to the city scale and city level,and there are differences in the impact on the level of urban governance;the smart city pilot policy exerts its smart governance effect through three intermediary paths: the construction of new information infrastructure,the increase of investment in science and technology,and the development of the information technology industry,and has improved the level of urban governance.The smart governance effect has improved the level of urban governance.In order to give full play to the policy effects of the smart city pilot policy and further use wisdom to promote the improvement of urban governance,the government should strengthen the implementation guidance of the smart city pilot policy,starting from increasing the research and development of information technology and vigorously promoting the construction of information infrastructure;increasing the support for scientific and technological innovation,optimising the allocation of scientific and technological resources and enhancing the attractiveness of the city to talents;and carrying out policy work in accordance with local conditions to optimise the policy.