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Tracks to tech equity: How high-speed rail bridges the digital divide within cities? Prefecture-level evidence from China

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  • Yuan, Hang
  • Feng, Wei

Abstract

As a cross-regional infrastructure and major public project, high-speed rail (HSR) can significantly impact regional economic development, but few studies focus on its effects on intra-regional inequality. This study takes the opening of HSR stations as a quasi-natural experiment and employs a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) model to empirically examine the characteristics and mechanisms of HSR's impact on intra-city digital inequality. The results show that: (1) The opening of HSR stations reduces digital inequality within a city, mainly because it significantly enhances the digital development level of disadvantaged counties compared to advantaged ones. (2) Mechanism analysis indicates that HSR reduces the digital divide by stimulating innovation equilibrium, financial equilibrium, and local fiscal revenue equilibrium effects within a city. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that HSR significantly impacts internal digital inequality only in high-slope, economically underdeveloped, and peripheral areas. (4) Spatial tests reveal that HSR also helps reduce digital inequality within neighboring cities. This study not only enriches the theoretical understanding of the economic effects of HSR development but also provides policy insights on how regions can eliminate digital inequality and close intra-regional digital divides.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuan, Hang & Feng, Wei, 2025. "Tracks to tech equity: How high-speed rail bridges the digital divide within cities? Prefecture-level evidence from China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:98:y:2025:i:c:s0038012125000011
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2025.102152
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    High-speed rail opening; Digital inequality; Staggered difference-in-differences Model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • L92 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Railroads and Other Surface Transportation

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