Smartness and European urban performance: assessing the local impacts of smart urban attributes

Abstract

In this paper we adopt a comprehensive definition of Smart City and examine whether and how the main characteristics of urban smartness are growth-enhancing. With a sample of cities from the European Union we assess the city-specific impacts on urban performance of a complex “urban smartness” indicator by applying a Spatial Autoregressive Local Estimate to an urban production function. The results of this econometric analysis point in the direction of the importance of space-specific characteristics in shaping the economic effect of smart urban qualities, providing grounding to place-based public policies that account for local characteristics. We also identify different clusters with respect to the impacts of smartness on urban performance and wealth, highlighting the need for geographically differentiated policy actions.