IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v181y2026ics0967070x26000661.html

The mediating role of agglomeration economies in high-speed rail's heterogeneous impact on firm location decisions

Author

Listed:
  • Jiao, Jingjuan
  • Ma, Wangyuqing
  • An, Ran
  • Wang, Chao

Abstract

High-speed rail (HSR) has the potential to generate significant network externalities by improving accessibility and connectivity, which can foster agglomeration economies and influence firm location decisions. However, these effects are not universal and may vary across regions and sectors. This study examines the varied benefits of HSR on accessibility and connectivity improvements across different sectors, focusing on the mediating roles of localization and urbanization economies in firm location decisions. Findings indicate that the enhanced transport accessibility and connectivity induced by HSR attract businesses to cluster in cities along railway corridors, demonstrating significant geographical spillover effects. While HSR dummy and connectivity provide network-wide “borrowed size” profits, while accessibility has increased inter-regional competitiveness. These enhancements predominantly benefit Scientific research, Technological services, Real estate, and the Leasing/Business services. In all sectors, accessibility has a more significant impact on firm entry than connectivity. Agglomeration economies considerably influence the effect of HSR on firm location decisions, exhibiting substantial variation in mediation strength across different sectors. These findings present novel avenues for utilizing HSR infrastructure to guide spatial economic reconfiguration and industrial enhancement towards sustainable regional development.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiao, Jingjuan & Ma, Wangyuqing & An, Ran & Wang, Chao, 2026. "The mediating role of agglomeration economies in high-speed rail's heterogeneous impact on firm location decisions," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:181:y:2026:i:c:s0967070x26000661
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2026.104056
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X26000661
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2026.104056?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:trapol:v:181:y:2026:i:c:s0967070x26000661. 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/30473/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.