How Smart Cities Reshape the Mobility of Technical Talent: New Evidence Based on the Push–Pull Mechanism

This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms linking smart cities and talent mobility, advances the complex adaptive systems theory by incorporating institutional dynamics, and offers valuable policy insights for optimizing smart city strategies and managing the push-and-pull dynamics of talent mobility. Drawing on data from China's prefecture-level cities from 2010 to 2022, this study constructs a gravity model to measure the mobility of technical talent and employs a double machine learning approach to examine how smart city development influences the mobility of technical talent. The findings reveal that the smart city pilot policy significantly enhances the mobility of technical talent by an average of 1.910% ( p < 0.01), with stronger effects observed in provincial capitals (5.489%) and cities in the eastern region (4.856%). A further mechanism analysis demonstrates that smart cities enhance their attractiveness to technical talent through the pull effects of digitization and internationalization, while the push effects of the unemployment related to digital technology and the market competition triggered by global openness reshape mobility decisions, driving the dynamic adjustment of talent distribution patterns.