IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa14p78.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Revisit' the Silk Road: A Quasi-Experiment Approach Estimating the Effects of Railway Speed-Up Project on China-Central Asia Exports

Author

Listed:
  • Hangtian Xu

Abstract

China's main railway line linking east and west was speeded-up in Oct. 21, 2000, which improves freight efficiency between eastern China and Xinjiang (the hub of China and Central Asia). This paper tests the impact of exogenous domestic accessibility variation on export. By employing a transaction-level customs database, empirical results find benefited exporters (use rail freight) increase the export value to Central Asia by around 30% compared with exporters use other freight modes, and exporters use rail freight but enjoy limited speeded-up mileage. The speed-up effect is due to mixed channels: net export creation, export diversion in freight modes and exporters. Increase in export value of related exporters is exerted by export expansion of existing exporters but not entry of new exporters. This paper also finds exports of medium value products benefit most from speed-up, which are more sensitive to shipping efficiency than low and high value products. Overall, speed-up effect on regional development of Xinjiang is two-fold. It weakens the function of Xinjiang as the hub, but promotes its export in other international markets by better accessibility to coast.

Suggested Citation

  • Hangtian Xu, 2014. "Revisit' the Silk Road: A Quasi-Experiment Approach Estimating the Effects of Railway Speed-Up Project on China-Central Asia Exports," ERSA conference papers ersa14p78, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p78
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa14/e140826aFinal00078.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tomoya Mori, 2012. "Increasing returns in transportation and the formation of hubs," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(4), pages 877-897, July.
    2. Volpe Martincus, Christian & Blyde, Juan, 2013. "Shaky roads and trembling exports: Assessing the trade effects of domestic infrastructure using a natural experiment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 148-161.
    3. Donald J. Rousslang & Theodore To, 1993. "Domestic Trade and Transportation Costs as Barriers to International Trade," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 26(1), pages 208-221, February.
    4. Lu, Yi & Tao, Zhigang & Zhang, Yan, 2013. "How do exporters respond to antidumping investigations?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 290-300.
    5. Benjamin Faber, 2014. "Trade Integration, Market Size, and Industrialization: Evidence from China's National Trunk Highway System," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(3), pages 1046-1070.
    6. M. Shahe Emran & Zhaoyang Hou, 2013. "Access to Markets and Rural Poverty: Evidence from Household Consumption in China," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(2), pages 682-697, May.
    7. Li, Zhigang & Chen, Yu, 2013. "Estimating the social return to transport infrastructure: A price-difference approach applied to a quasi-experiment," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 669-683.
    8. Takanori Ago & Ikumo Isono & Takatoshi Tabuchi, 2006. "Locational disadvantage of the hub," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 40(4), pages 819-848, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xu, Hangtian, 2016. "Domestic railroad infrastructure and exports: Evidence from the Silk Route," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 129-147.
    2. Tsekeris, Theodore, 2016. "Interregional trade network analysis for road freight transport in Greece," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 132-148.
    3. Hayakawa, Kazunobu & Keola, Souknilanh & Sudsawasd, Sasatra & Yamanouchi, Kenta, 2022. "Impacts of an international bridge on households: Evidence from Thailand," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. Ke, Xiao & Chen, Haiqiang & Hong, Yongmiao & Hsiao, Cheng, 2017. "Do China's high-speed-rail projects promote local economy?—New evidence from a panel data approach," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 203-226.
    5. Coşar, A. Kerem & Demir, Banu, 2016. "Domestic road infrastructure and international trade: Evidence from Turkey," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 232-244.
    6. Stephan Fretz & Raphaël Parchet & Frédéric Robert-Nicoud, 2022. "Highways, Market Access and Spatial Sorting," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(643), pages 1011-1036.
    7. Brian Blankespoor & M Shahe Emran & Forhad Shilpi & Lu Xu, 2022. "Bridge to bigpush or backwash? Market integration, reallocation and productivity effects of Jamuna Bridge in Bangladesh [Agricultural technology choice and transport]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 853-871.
    8. Emran,M. Shahe & Shilpi,Forhad J. & Coulombe,Harold & Blankespoor,Brian, 2019. "Temporary Trade Shocks, Spatial Reallocation, and Persistence in Developing Countries : Evidence from a Natural Experiment in West Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8962, The World Bank.
    9. Stef Proost & Jacques-François Thisse, 2019. "What Can Be Learned from Spatial Economics?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(3), pages 575-643, September.
    10. Claudia N. Berg & Uwe Deichmann & Yishen Liu & Harris Selod, 2017. "Transport Policies and Development," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 465-480, April.
    11. Jiangteng Zhou, 2023. "The impacts of highways on firm size distribution: Evidence from China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 482-506, June.
    12. Wang, Cong & Yang, Hangjun & Yuan, Hang, 2018. "The impact of railway reform on corporate export: The case of China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 627-647.
    13. Baniya, Suprabha & Murray, Siobhan & Rocha, Nadia & Ruta, Michele, 2018. "Trade Effects of the New Silk Road," Conference papers 333010, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    14. Zhigang Li & Hangtian Xu, 2018. "High‐speed railroads and economic geography: Evidence from Japan," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 705-727, September.
    15. Wu, Mingqin & Yu, Linhui & Zhang, Junsen, 2023. "Road expansion, allocative efficiency, and pro-competitive effect of transport infrastructure: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    16. Dan Liu & Liugang Sheng & Miaojie Yu, 2023. "Highways and firms' exports: Evidence from China," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 413-443, May.
    17. Hans R A Koster & Takatoshi Tabuchi & Jacques-François Thisse, 2022. "To be connected or not to be connected? The role of long-haul economies [Do rural roads create pathways out of poverty? Evidence from India]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 711-753.
    18. Okamoto, Chigusa & Sato, Yasuhiro, 2021. "Impacts of high-speed rail construction on land prices in urban agglomerations: Evidence from Kyushu in Japan," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    19. Salamat Ali & Richard Kneller & Chris Milner, 2018. "Differential effects of internal and external distances on trade flows: The case of Pakistan," Discussion Papers 2018-13, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    20. Bosker, Maarten, 2022. "City origins," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Domestic transport costs; China-Central Asia; Export; Firm-level; Transport infrastructure;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p78. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.