Abstract
Achieving transport connectivity is a priority in China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”. In order to further understand the impact of railway infrastructure on city-level economic expansion, we set cities with high-speed rail as the treatment group and those without high-speed rail as the control group, and a difference-in-differences (DID) technique was used to estimate the growth impact and heterogeneity of high-speed rail opening on the economic growth of cities along the New Silk Road Economic Belt. The main results are as follows: First, economic growth in cities with operational high-speed rail lines was significantly higher than those without high-speed rail. Second, the impact of high-speed rail on economic growth exhibited distinct heterogeneity. Large cities tend to have a stronger siphoning effect, resulting in more pronounced impact of high-speed rail opening on urban economic growth. Third, cities with higher marketization levels and higher government efficiency were shown to have stronger economic growth effect.
Highlights
The Silk Road has provided important contributions to the global economic and cultural exchanges with far-reaching historical significance
The results of this study provide a basis for each region to further expand regional development space, promote regional economic growth and formulate relevant policies according to local conditions with the help of high-speed rail construction
If β > 0, the opening of high-speed rail is conducive to urban economic growth; if β < 0, the opposite is true; and if β = 0, the high-speed rail opening makes no significant contribution to urban economic growth
Summary
The Silk Road has provided important contributions to the global economic and cultural exchanges with far-reaching historical significance. Realizing the “Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal” blueprint in high-speed rail construction would further expand the range of the current high-speed rail network, which will bring the rapid flow of talents, capital, technology, information, and other elements, and becomes the "fast way" to promote the development of the local economy. This is critical in order to maintain stable growth of regional economies while achieving high-quality economic development. The results of this study provide a basis for each region to further expand regional development space, promote regional economic growth and formulate relevant policies according to local conditions with the help of high-speed rail construction
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