Abstract

There is an increasing trend among local governments in the United States and elsewhere in the world to adopt smart cities technologies (SCT), but the question remains: Do these technologies contribute to government revenue performance? Drawing on the digital-era governance (DEG) literature for theoretical context, this article investigates the effects of commitment to, engagement with, and barriers encountered with SCT on government revenue performance. The effects are examined using performance data obtained from the 2016 International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Smart Cities Survey and the U.S. Census Bureau. The ordinary least squares (OLS) regression results provide empirical support to the assertion that higher engagement with SCT contributes to government revenue performance. Overall, we find that SCT contribute to local retail trade revenue collection efforts and health care and social assistance revenue of establishments in a local government area. The article offers policy implications on how local governments can improve their revenue performance using SCT that contribute to important public values such as timeliness, productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, and government competitiveness, as well as benevolence and human dignity.

摘要

美国和世界其他地方的地方政府采用智慧城市技术 (SCT) 的趋势越来越大，但问题仍然存在：这些技术是否有助于政府收入绩效？本文利用数字时代治理 (DEG) 文献作为理论背景，研究了对 SCT 的承诺、参与和遇到的障碍对政府收入绩效的影响。使用从 2016 年国际城市/县管理协会 (ICMA) 智能城市调查和美国人口普查局获得的绩效数据来检查这些影响。普通最小二乘 (OLS) 回归结果为更高参与 SCT 有助于政府收入绩效的断言提供了实证支持。全面的，我们发现，SCT 有助于地方零售贸易收入的征收工作以及当地政府区域机构的医疗保健和社会援助收入。本文就地方政府如何利用 SCT 改善其收入绩效提供了政策启示，这有助于重要的公共价值，例如及时性、生产力、效率、有效性和政府竞争力，以及仁慈和人的尊严。