Impact of high-speed railroad on regional income inequalities in China and Korea

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study is to analyse the impact of opening high-speed railroad (HSR) on the regional income inequality in China and Korea. The convergence models are applied to test the effect of the HSR on regional growth in terms of GRDP per capita across 455 cities and counties along the Beijing–Shanghai HSR corridor and 112 cities and counties along the Seoul–Busan HSR corridor, respectively. The results indicate that at the national level, a trend of convergence emerges during the three-year period of analysis in both China and Korea. At the HSR passing area level, HSR contributes to accelerate regional economic convergence and reduce the regional income disparities in China and Korea; however, HSR has different impacts on reducing the regional income inequality in China and Korea considering the HSR station cities. In Korea, the regional inequality is rather wider among the cities where HSR station located.