Does high-speed railway impact urban logistics industry agglomeration? Empirical evidence from China's prefecture-level cities

Abstract

Based on the panel data of 280 prefecture-level cities in China from 2007 to 2019, we took the opening of high-speed railways (HSRs) as the “quasi-natural test” and employed propensity score matching (PSM)-difference in difference (DID) method to empirically test the agglomeration effect of the opening of HSRs on the urban logistics industry and the heterogeneity of cities according to location types and urban grade classification. The results show that the opening of HSRs has an impact on the spatial layout of logistics industry by promoting urban economic growth and gathering labor. In the dynamic balance of agglomeration and diffusion, the logistics industry gradually spreads to the surrounding areas of the city through the opening of HSRs. The opening of HSRs has a heterogeneous impact on the agglomeration effect of urban logistics industry. For the rapidly developing first-tier, second-tier and third-tier cities, the opening of HSRs has a significant impact on the agglomeration of their logistics industry and promotes its diffusion to those surrounding cities. On this basis, this paper puts forward corresponding suggestions for the development of the logistics industry and tries to make full use of the development opportunity brought by the opening of HSRs to promote the development of the logistics industry.