Does improvement of railway network promote urban economic growth? evidence from Northeast China

The railway network connects different cities and regions and plays an important role in the transportation system. This paper theoretically analyzes the causal effect and mechanisms of the railway network on urban economic growth, and explores the direct effects, threshold effects, and spatial spillover effects of improved centrality in the railway network on urban economic growth in Northeast China. The results show that: (1) There is a similarity between the economic growth level and the trend of the railway network in Northeast China. From a spatial perspective, there are regional differences in the development of the railway network. (2) From the perspective of the direct effects, each unit improvement in railway network centrality leads to a 0.160 unit increase in urban economic growth in Northeast China. The degree of influence of other variables on urban economic growth, in descending order, is labor employment level, material capital investment, information development level, technological development level, human capital, and degree of openness. (3) From the perspective of the threshold effects of the railway network, the threshold values and the number of threshold levels are different for different regions. (4) There are significant spatial spillover effects in the railway network of Northeast China, and an increase in the centrality of a city’s network can have negative spatial spillover effects on the economies of surrounding areas. Based on these results, we recommend that Northeast China should focus on the construction and improvement of the railway network, strengthen the connections between regions, and promote the overall economic growth of the region while improving its international competitiveness.