The role of smart cities in sustainable development: empirical evidence from Türkiye

Purpose: This study aims to empirically examine the effects of smart cities on sustainable development for the period 1990–2019 for Türkiye. Design/methodology/approach: The relationship between smart cities and sustainable development was analyzed with the help of the ARDL Bounds Test. In addition, the consistency of the model was tested with the FMOLS estimator. The indicators of the smart city were selected following the literature to represent smart cities, and the author created the smart city index. The study used other variables thought to impact sustainable development as secondary data. Findings: The results show that smart cities positively and significantly impact sustainable development in Turkiye in both models during the sampling period. In addition, while real GDP, population density, and financial development variables positively affect sustainable development, population density has a negative effect on sustainable development, according to the results obtained from FMOLS estimators. Originality/value: The first novelty of this study is the creation of the smart city index. The second novelty is that there are almost no studies on the effects of smart cities on sustainable development, especially for Türkiye. © 2024, Basak Ozarslan Dogan.