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High-speed railway, market access and economic growth

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  • Zou, Wei
  • Chen, Liangheng
  • Xiong, Junke

Abstract

This paper establishes a general equilibrium trade model, adopts the “market access” approach to measure the impact of the high-speed railway (HSR) network on the economic growth of 110 main Chinese prefecture-level cities, of which we manually collected the pairwise travel distances and railway speeds to calculate MA (Market Access). The empirical results show that the launch of HSR exhibits significant positive effects on growth, specifically, 1 percentage increase in MA leads to an increase of real income by 0.123 (controlling region fixed effect) or 0.121 (controlling province fixed effect) percentage. Counterfactual econometrics analysis shows that if all HSR were removed in 2015, the market access would fall by an average of 76.2%, and aggregate real income would decline by up to 9.4%. The growth effect of HSR varies across cities, and HSR has a more prominent impact on services than on manufactures. The conclusion stands valid after a series of robustness tests.

Suggested Citation

  • Zou, Wei & Chen, Liangheng & Xiong, Junke, 2021. "High-speed railway, market access and economic growth," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1282-1304.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:76:y:2021:i:c:p:1282-1304
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2019.11.014
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    Cited by:

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    2. Gabrielle Gambuli, 2023. "Navigating the Geography of Regional Disparities: Market Access and the Core-Periphery Divide," THEMA Working Papers 2023-05, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    3. Zhao, Junfeng & Yan, Jinling & Ran, Qiying & Yang, Xiaodong & Su, Xufeng & Shen, Jianliang, 2022. "Does the opening of high-speed railways improve urban livability? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PB).
    4. Chong Ye & Yanhong Zheng & Shanlang Lin & Zhaoyang Zhao, 2022. "The Impact of High-Speed Railway Opening on Regional Economic Growth: The Case of the Wuhan–Guangzhou High-Speed Railway Line," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-22, September.
    5. Sun, Yunpeng & Razzaq, Asif & Kizys, Renatas & Bao, Qun, 2022. "High-speed rail and urban green productivity: The mediating role of climatic conditions in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    6. Liang, Fangzhi & Yao, Zhenye & Yang, Danqin & Xu, Hanwen, 2023. "The Economic Diffusion Radius of High-Speed Railway Stations," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PB).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    High-speed railway; Transport infrastructure; Market access; Economic growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • R42 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government and Private Investment Analysis; Road Maintenance; Transportation Planning

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