Spatial Spillover Effects of Economic Growth Based on High-Speed Railways in Northeast China

Haoming Guan,Qiao Li,Wen-Ze Yue

doi:10.1155/2021/8831325

Haoming Guan, Qiao Li + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/8831325

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Abstract

This paper examines the spatial spillover effects of public transportation infrastructure on regional economy in Northeast China, the “rust belt” region in China. The dataset consists of socioeconomic data from 47 cities in the area during the period of year 2005 through 2015. Accessibility is used as an explanatory variable to reflect the influence of infrastructure on economic development. In order to avoid the endogenous, queen contiguity matrix is used to define the spatial weight matrix. In the paper, the dynamic panel data model is also used to explore the effects of high-speed railways in the whole study area and attempted to confirm the spatial differences among Heilongjiang Province, Jilin Province, and Liaoning Province. The results show that the high-speed railways increase the cities’ connection in terms of accessibility, and a significant positive spillover effect exists after the construction of high-speed railways (HSR), indicating the extensive economic benefits of HSR construction, despite of the overall economic difficulty experienced by this region.

Highlights

China has developed dramatically in the past few decades, with an average 10% growth rate over the past 30 years [1]
Several reasons may have contributed to this phenomenon: first, most economic policies implemented by the central government favor cities in coastal areas; second, the east coast enjoys great locational advantage [3], and its accessibility to both inland resources and ports makes it attractive in the global economy [4]; third, the development of transportation infrastructure in this region may have played a key role in enabling the spatial spillover of economic development and agglomeration, implying further industrial and population clustering [5]
As the old industrial bases in the past, the three provinces in Northeast China are still heavily affected by the residue of planned economy

Summary

Introduction

China has developed dramatically in the past few decades, with an average 10% growth rate over the past 30 years [1]. As the old base of heavy industrial, the northeast region has suffered from population loss and very low (and even negative in recent years) economic growth rate [6]. Many believe that this region’s over-reliance on natural resources and heavy industry is the main contributing factor [7]. Seeing the success of the east coast, the Chinese central government started a series of policies to stimulate the economy of the Northeast region One of these key policies was to invest in infrastructure and expand public transportation especially the high-speed rail (HSR) in this region. It was expected that public transportation enables to serve larger markets much more economically to make the market potential enlarged [8]. e enhanced market potential increases cities connectivity caused by transportation systems [9]

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