The role of high-speed rail on green total factor productivity: evidence from Chinese cities.

Abstract

Compared with other transportation facilities, high-speed rail (HSR) may be more beneficial to "green development." Based on a sample of 276 cities in China over 2005-2019, this study calculates the actual and change values of green total factor productivity (GTFP) with the stochastic frontier approach (SFA) and investigates the effect of HSR on GTFP using the time-varying difference-in-difference model and propensity score matching analysis. Our research results show a significantly positive effect of HSR on GTFP through reducing energy consumption and environmental pollution, as well as improving technological innovation. HSR-connected cities are found to have outperformed non-HSR-connected cities by 12.8% regarding GTFP in the sample period, and the effect is stronger for the eastern region and/or the central cities compared with the rest of the country. The research findings of this paper have important policy implications regarding China's HSR development and its impact on economic growth as well as the natural environment.