Impacts of high-speed rails on urban networks and regional development: a study of the Yangtze River Delta, China

Abstract

The high-speed rail (HSR) network in China has expanded rapidly, significantly reducing transportation costs and improving accessibility. However, scholars are concerned about whether HSRs further centralize resources and intensify regional polarization. This paper studies the role of HSR in the process of urban development and regional integration in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). We use two indicators (overall connectivity and weighted centrality) to examine the impacts of HSR connection on spatial redistribution, and we adopt a difference-in-differences (DID) analysis to investigate the effects of HSR on local economic development. The results show that HSR operation enormously improves the overall connectivity of urban networks in the YRD. However, it also exacerbates the disequilibrium of urban centrality, forming a hierarchical spatial structure with Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou as hubs. HSR connections also impede local economic growth in peripheral areas. Moreover, the results confirm the existence of a dynamic time-lagged effect on local economic growth, and the heterogeneous impact of HSR also aggravates regional economic disparities. This paper highlights the effects of HSR on the development of cities and regions, and suggests that government should exert greater efforts to reduce the negative effects of the development of HSR.