Public management of Brazilian Smart Cities and their effects on local education

Abstract

The research analyzes the direct and indirect relationships of the main components of Smart Cities: smart technologies, fiscal governance of public management, and education indicators. The analysis was developed with structural equation modeling based on data from 94 Brazilian Smart Cities. The statistical results indicate that the existence or availability of smart technologies does not influence directly better educational indicators; however, they do influence better fiscal governance, and through this, better educational indicators of citizens. Indirectly, the statistical coefficients demonstrate that the relationship between smart technologies and educational indicators is mediated by fiscal governance. In view of this, investment in the availability of technologies for education needs to be accompanied by investments for the effective use of these technologies, such as the availability of tutors, facilitating access to the internet and the transfer of computers, resulting in a consequent greater capacity to contribute to the development of its citizens.