IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v199y2025ics0965856425001806.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How high-speed rail development empowers urban health: Evidence from Chinese prefectural-level data

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Haoran
  • Wang, Peng
  • Liu, Jingyang
  • Zhang, Yuhao

Abstract

Previous research has highlighted the positive effects of high-speed rail (HSR) on individual mental and physical health. However, the broader impact of HSR expansion on health equity and overall urban health remains unclear. This paper measures the urban health of 284 Chinese cities from 2007 to 2019 and employs a double machine learning model to analyze the effects of HSR on urban health. We further investigate potential mechanisms and regional heterogeneities across cities. The results suggest that HSR expansion significantly enhances urban health outcomes, especially in developed cities in eastern and central China. Mechanism analysis reveals that increased green technology innovation, enhanced healthcare resources allocation, and expanded economic activities mediate the relationship between HSR services and urban health. This study contributes to the understanding of how HSR development impacts urban health and provides valuable insights into optimizing China’s HSR network to support the “Healthy Cities” initiative.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Haoran & Wang, Peng & Liu, Jingyang & Zhang, Yuhao, 2025. "How high-speed rail development empowers urban health: Evidence from Chinese prefectural-level data," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:199:y:2025:i:c:s0965856425001806
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2025.104552
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856425001806
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2025.104552?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:transa:v:199:y:2025:i:c:s0965856425001806. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    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.