Abstract
High-quality development of the economy is an important guarantee for economic and business sustainability, and the construction of transportation infrastructure is an important channel to achieving high-quality development. Thus, we take the opening of China’s high-speed railway (HSR) as a quasi-natural experiment and use the difference-in-difference model to explore the impact and mechanism of HSR on firms’ high-quality development. By using the total factor productivity of enterprises as the proxy for high-quality development, the empirical results show that: (1) the opening of the HSR can significantly promote high-quality development of enterprises; (2) the quality of information disclosure plays a mediating role in such relationships; and (3) the impact of HSR on enterprises’ high-quality development is more significant for enterprises that are located in cities with better business environments. Overall, this research indicates that local infrastructure construction is an important factor to achieve high-quality development of enterprises as well as economic sustainability that cannot be ignored, and this conclusion will be helpful for corporate managers in enhancing the quality of information disclosure, as well as for local governments to attach more importance to optimizing business environments to achieve high-quality development and economic sustainability.
Highlights
China’s economy has shifted from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of highquality development in recent years
The results revealed that the coefficients of High-Speed Railway (HSR) in both columns were positive and significant at the 1% level, indicating that the total factor productivity (TFP) of enterprises in cities with HSR is significantly improved after the HSR opening, the HSR opening promotes the high-quality development of enterprises
The results of the control variables showed that firm size (SIZE), financial leverage (LEV), firm performance (ROE), cash flow of the enterprise (Cashflow), corporate governance (DUAL), and the growth rate of GDP (GDPgrt) were all positively related to the TFP
Summary
China’s economy has shifted from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of highquality development in recent years. The stage of “high-quality development” is a new development concept, featuring innovative, coordinated, green, open, and shared development, which provides an important guarantee for the sustainable development of the economy. Investment in transportation infrastructure has long been considered one of the key factors in promoting economic growth [1], and it is an important guarantee and driving force for accelerating regional development [2]. By formulating and perfecting the road map of high-quality development, constantly improving the operation quality, and enhancing their competitiveness can enterprises realize high-quality and sustainable development. High-Speed Railway (HSR) is a large-scale transportation infrastructure investment that was introduced in China in 2008 to facilitate the flow of information, capital, and labor
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