The correlation between HSR construction and economic development – Empirical study of Chinese cities

Abstract

Based on the situation of high-speed railway (HSR) construction in the past decade in China, as well as China’s latest national railway network planning proposal, this paper studies the correlation between the economic development and the opportunity of obtaining HSR infrastructure investment for Chinese cities in different periods over time span 2007–2030. The “winners” and “losers” of obtaining HSR infrastructure investments are determined and the reason is explained by a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. According to the findings, the spatiotemporal development strategy of China’s HSR is revealed. Further, the implications of the HSR for the economic development of Chinese cities are presented. It hopes that the results presented in this paper could facilitate Chinese cities with the appropriate urban developing policies for both the economy promotion and HSR infrastructure construction; moreover, the rapid development of China's economy and HSR can bring a good example to other countries in the world.