Abstract
Innovation is intrinsically dependent on the construction of local infrastructure. Using panel data on 285 cities in China, we empirically examined the impact of high-speed rails on urban innovation and the mechanism underlying this effect. We found that high-speed rails significantly increase urban innovation. In our analysis, high-speed rails were found to increase the agglomeration of innovation factors, including population and investment, which in turn increase urban technological innovation. The agglomeration of investment factors brought about by high-speed rails is the main source of the improvement in urban innovation. Through the use of a spatial panel model, we found that high-speed rails promote knowledge dissemination and technology spillovers among the cities along high-speed railways, thus improving their innovation levels. However, the existing effects of high-speed rails on innovation exhibit spatial heterogeneity. We confirmed the effect of high-speed rails on innovation and explored the mechanism underlying this effect by considering the effects of factor agglomeration and knowledge spillovers. Our conclusions can be used as a resource by policymakers to stimulate knowledge and technology diffusion, which in turn cultivates and stimulates urban innovation.
Highlights
Innovation activities within cities are intrinsically dependent on the local infrastructure [1], on the transportation and communication infrastructure [2–4]
The flow of knowledge that occurs with modern information technology as the carrier cannot fully replace the flow of scientific researchers that occurs with the transportation infrastructure as the carrier
Our research helps to clarify why high-speed rails promote urban innovation; that is, we clarify the role played by knowledge spillovers between high-speed rail cities, which are not considered in previous empirical studies
Summary
Innovation activities within cities are intrinsically dependent on the local infrastructure [1], on the transportation and communication infrastructure [2–4]. Instead of using the number of patent applications as an indicator of urban innovation levels, we use the urban innovation index. Unlike Zeng et al (2021) and Lin (2017), who study the mechanisms of highspeed rails on urban innovation from the perspectives of the level of openness to trade, industrial agglomeration and synergy within cities [7, 9], we explore the mechanism that drives the impact of high-speed rails on urban innovation in terms of factor agglomeration, which enriches the research on the effect of high-speed rails on innovation. Our research helps to clarify why high-speed rails promote urban innovation; that is, we clarify the role played by knowledge spillovers between high-speed rail cities, which are not considered in previous empirical studies
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