Impact Of High-speed Railway Research Articles

High-speed railways, audit partner changes across audit offices and audit quality: Evidence from China

The development of high-speed railways (HSRs) has significant regional economic and social implications. We study a micro externality of such development, namely the impact of HSRs on audit firms' human resource allocation and audit quality. Specifically, we investigate the relationship between the availability of HSRs and audit partner changes across audit offices in China which involves a simultaneous change in audit partner and audit office to reallocate human resources. We find that the advent of HSRs between clients and audit offices increases the likelihood of audit partner changes across audit offices especially for predecessor audit offices with severe human resource constraints due partly to the mandatory auditor rotation requirement. Such audit partner changes across audit offices most likely are reciprocal over time, occur within the optimal HSR transportation interval and can significantly improve audit quality in terms of reducing excessive financing reporting discretions, misstatements and regulatory sanctions, but exert no effect on audit fees. Our study has implications for audit firms’ human resource management in light of infrastructure improvements and for audit policy makers to evaluate the standards for audit partner rotations.

The spatially differentiated impact of high-speed railway on accessibility and socio-economic development of developing regions: A study in southwest China

The high-speed railway (HSR) plays a crucial role in bolstering regional connectivity and economic and social progress. Nevertheless, there is an ongoing debate around the impact of HSR on the economic and social development of the developing regions. On one hand, developing regions necessitate the implementation of HSR systems to facilitate their progress. On the other hand, they must also mitigate the potential drawbacks and adverse consequences associated. By employing accessibility analysis, urban potential analysis, and geographically-temporal weighted regression modeling, this study aims to comprehensively elucidate the spatially variable impact of HSR on developing regions such as Southwest China. The findings indicate that the implementation of HSR has yielded significant benefits in terms of accessibility, economic growth, and social development in developing regions. However, there is a growing disparity between cities that have HSR connections and those that do not. Additionally, smaller and medium-sized cities situated along the middle section of the HSR route experience relatively less pronounced impacts. This study posits that there is a necessity to enhance the expansion of the HSR network in developing regions, concurrently with the reinforcement of inter-city cooperation and the establishment of urban agglomerations, thereby promoting high-quality and balanced development of the developing regions.

Does high-speed railway promote horizontal equity within and between cities? Evidence from China

The ongoing debate regarding the impact of rail infrastructures on equity has been a subject of continued interest, particularly in light of increased investments in transportation infrastructures. While numerous studies have explored the distributional impact of high-speed railway (HSR) on intercity economic disparity and accessibility changes, there’s less focus on equity within the city. Consequently, this study employs the difference-in-difference model to analyze the impact of HSR on equity within the city using prefecture-level data in China spanning 2006–2019. Additionally, the study examines the equity between cities, using the Wuhan-Guangzhou railway line as a case study. The findings reveal that the introduction of HSR not only directly enhances equity between cities by improving job accessibility but also indirectly diminishes the urban-rural divide by creating more job opportunities for rural residents. This study broadens the concept of horizontal equity by considering equity within the city and expands the investigation on the equity between cities from traditional accessibility studies to more focused job accessibility. Furthermore, the study contributes to understanding the equity impact of remittance behavior from rural-to-urban migrant workers on balancing urban-rural development, a phenomenon characterized by the quick urbanization of China and also popular in developing countries around the world.

The impact of high-speed railway on firms’ productivity

Using a multi-sector trade model with heterogeneous firms, this paper examines how the high-speed railway (HSR) results in changes in market access, and affects firms’ productivity. The model shows that with the opening of HSR in cities and decrease in trade costs, firm productivity increases through “competition effect” (proxied by consumer market access, CMA), but decrease through “scale expansion effect” (proxied by firm market access, FMA). To distinguish between these two competing effects empirically, we manually compile data of 110 prefecture cities which are sequentially connected with HSR during 2007–2013, and match these cities with China Industrial Firms Database during same period. We find that firm productivity increase by 0.0318 percentages due to one percentage increase in CMA, and decrease by 0.0552 percentages due to one percentage increase in FMA. We find significant heterogeneity in the effect of HSR opening on firm productivity in that the effect is the largest in the central area and mostly insignificant in the west; and the effect turns out the largest for technology-intensive firms, less for capital-intensive firms and the least for labor-intensive firms. We also find the impact of HSR opening on firm revenue, output, decision of entry or exit, as well as on regional productivity. Further analyses suggest that the effect of scale expansion dominates in the period after 2009 and hinders firm productivity, which explains the puzzling divergence of rising GDP and decreasing average TFP in that period.

Analyzing sustainable competitiveness of inter-city coach from the impact of high-speed railway opening in Jiangsu Province, China

High-speed railway (HSR) decreases the geographic and temporal constraints between cities, which may exert influence on inter-city transportation market. The impact of HSR on airlines has been well studied, while studies relevant to its positioning and relationship with inter-city coach (ICC) are limited. Based upon a four-year longitudinal panel dataset of ICC in Jiangsu Province, China, we utilize a difference-in-differences (DID) method to explore the effects of HSR opening on measuring the sustainable competitiveness of ICC. The results show that the HSR opening dramatically reduces ICC volumes. By further exploring the effect of service differences, we construct continuous DID models and find that ICC passengers are more concerned about travel time than price. Furthermore, the influence of HSR on ICC routes is not statistically significant for distances within 100 km, but becomes significant for distances exceeding 100 km, with the most pronounced impact observed on routes surpassing 150 km in length. In addition, we find that the ICC volumes of feeder routes overlapping with HSR service have decreased, while those without HSR service have tended to increase. The findings of this study could provide beneficial insights into the sustainability and coordinated development of inter-city transportation services.

Impact of high-speed railway on urban resilience in China: Does urban innovation matter?

Based on calculating the urban resilience index from five aspects of economy, society, institutions, infrastructure, and ecology by adopting the entropy method, this study applies the time-varying DID model to systematically examine HSR's impact on China's urban resilience, on basis of which its heterogeneities and the mediating effect of urban innovation are also quantified. The findings reveal that: (1) HSR can significantly promote China's urban resilience, as supported by various robustness tests. (2) HSR can significantly improve economic and institution resilience of cities, but does not play a significant role on social resilience and infrastructure resilience, and has a negative effect on ecological resilience. (3) The driving effects of HSR on the resilience of core cities, large cities, and non-resource-based cities are more significant. (4) Urban innovation is an important channel through which HSR impacts urban resilience. The conclusions of this study can offer useful insights for China's future HSR planning and resilient cities construction.

A Key to Stimulate Green Technology Innovation in China: The Expansion of High-Speed Railways

Mankind is seeking a green development path. This paper places emphasis on whether high-speed railways (HSRs), as a typical representative of green transportation, can effectively promote green technology innovation in cities. Based on the panel data of 286 Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2007 to 2018, we employ the Panel Negative Binomial Regression Model and the Spatial Dubin Model for empirical analysis. The results illustrate that the expansion of HSRs not only has a direct and substantial promotion influence on local green technology innovation but also on the surrounding area. We further find that circulation node cities reap more benefits of the opening of HSRs than other ordinary cities. The higher the degree of marketization, the weaker the marginal impact of HSRs on green technology innovation. Meanwhile, the mechanism test confirms that HSRs can indirectly stimulate the progress of green technology innovation by influencing the creative class flow and the government's environmental concerns. Our findings present new insights for enhancing green technology innovation and provide policy recommendations for local governments to take advantage of HSRs to obtain resources.

High-speed railway development and its impact on urban economy and population: A case study of nine provinces along the Yellow River, China

The high-speed railway (HSR) has been generally regarded as a valid enhancement to national accessibility. However, the debate on the impact of HSR on regions has not reached a consensus. Therefore, we create the accessibility model in nine provinces along the Yellow River based on different years, which incorporates urban scale, travel time, and service frequency of HSR, to dynamically analyze the spatial pattern of urban agglomeration. Moreover, we adapt the Difference-in-differences model to explore the impact on the regional and urban economy and population. The results indicate that HSR significantly improves the accessibility level of most cities in the east and south of nine provinces along the Yellow River, showing a significant “corridor effect.” In terms of urban development potential, the spatial distribution pattern of “mass-shaped high-value areas in the east and point-shaped high-value areas in the west” is observed. Furthermore, empirical results show a greater agglomeration rather than diffusion, large cities benefit from HSR with economic promotion, however, HSR causes population loss and economic downturn in small and medium-sized cities. The paper highlights that the HSR does not always bring growth opportunities, a coordinated policy should be implemented for more integrated development of future HSR planning and construction.

The impact of high-speed railway on labor spatial misallocation—Based on spatial difference-in-differences analysis

Existing studies neglected to assess the resource allocation effect of high-speed railway (HSR). This paper examines the impact of HSR on labor spatial misallocation in China by applying a modified spatial difference-in-differences approach, which identify local treatment effect, spillover effect on treated and untreated regions. The study finds: (1) Opening HSR alleviates not only the local labor misallocation but also the misallocation in surrounding areas to a greater extent, including cities with HSR (treatment group) and without HSR (control group), which contributes to the overall productivity increase. The spillover effect of HSR is larger than the direct effect. (2) The largest spillover effect occurs in adjacent areas near 350 km apart, while the spillover effect disappears beyond 500 km. (3) The direction and magnitude of HSR effect depend on the urban scale. For large-scale cities, the impact of opening HSR is greater versus small-scale ones. • A spatial DID model is applied to identify the impact of HSR on labor misallocation. • HSR mitigates the misallocation for both treated and non-treated regions nearby. • The spillover effect of HSR reaches the maximum at the distance of 350 kilometers. • The impact of HSR on misallocation varies by city scale.

The impact of high-speed railway on labor market between the North and South: evidence from China

The impact of high-speed railway on labor market between the North and South: evidence from China

The Impact of High-Speed Rail and Central Cities on Enterprise Financing Costs

The study of the impact of the high-speed railway (HSR) on enterprise financing costs (EFCs) contributes to understanding the economic impact of transportation facilities, by analyzing the coordinated development of the regional economy and studying the influencing factors in enterprise operation. By using data of Chinese listed companies from 2008 to 2019, this paper analyzes the impact of HSR on EFCs and examines the role of central cities (CCs) in the whole process through methods of the DID model, panel threshold model, PSM-DID, parallel trend test and so on. The research results are as follows: first, HSR led to a significant decrease in the level of corporate debt financing. The regression coefficient of HSR is −0.002, which is significant at a 5% level. Second, there exists a heterogeneous effect of HSR on CCs. Mid-region enterprises suffered more than small enterprises, low-growth enterprises and enterprises with a low return on assets. Third, HSR affects EFCs, which leads to the diffusion effect of CCs, resulting in an increase in EFCs in CCs and a decrease in non-CCs. It was found that there is a single threshold of the panel threshold regression based on per capita GDP, and the regression coefficient of HSR below the threshold is −0.001, which is significant at the 5% level. Additionally, the regression coefficient of HSR above the threshold is 0.002, which is significant at the 1% level. The interaction term and group regression both also confirm the above conclusion. Fourth, the impact of HSR on EFCs is limited by geographic distance. When the geographic distance between a non-CC and a single CC is greater than 500 km, and the total distance between a non-CC and four CCs is greater than 3500 km, the effect of HSR is remarkable. The above conclusions prove the significant impact of HSR on EFCs and reveal the role of CCs and geographic distance in this process. These provide new ideas and evidence for corporate financing management as well as planning for urban development and the HSR network.

High-Speed Railway Facilities, Intercity Accessibility and Urban Innovation Level—Evidence from Cities in Three Chinese Megacity Regions

This paper investigates the impact of high-speed railways (HSR) on urban innovation levels by improving intercity accessibility. We employ prefecture city-level data within three megacity regions in China from 2009 to 2018. Using the number of invention patents granted as a proxy for the innovation level of a city, we find that HSR facilities significantly improve urban innovation levels through better regional intercity accessibility and that there is a diminishing effect as commuting time increases. The impact mechanisms of innovation improvement can be explained by an ever-increasing potential of interaction activities among talents and technology investment opportunities among cities. We contribute to the literature by highlighting the spatial attenuation impact of HSR on urban innovation levels as well as the underlying mechanisms. Particularly, talent interaction exerts a larger effect on urban innovation levels than technology investment opportunities. Moreover, we unravel the heterogeneous effects that more innovative cities and cities with double first-class universities gain more from the improved intercity accessibility brought by HSR. This research has policy implications that promoting HSR facilities improves innovation levels of cities with different resources.

HIGH-SPEED RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION, INFORMATION ENVIRONMENT AND CORPORATE COST STICKINESS: THE CASE OF CHINA

Infrastructure constructions promote the flow of production factors across regions and improve the information environment of the region. This paper investigates the impact of infrastructure construction, proxy as the opening of high-speed railway (HSR), on corporate cost stickiness. The results show that the opening of HSR is beneficial to decreasing corporate cost stickiness, and this positive impact is robust after IV estimations and placebo test. Moreover, we find some evidence that the opening of HSR can promote the frequency and quality of analysts’ survey, and improved the corporate information environment. Further analyses show that the positive impact of HSR on corporate cost stickiness is more pronounced for firms with serious information asymmetry and weaker corporate governance. Then after the effect of the HSR on stickiness of different type corporate cost was tested, the results showed that the impact of the opening of HSR on corporate cost stickiness mainly exists in manager perks and salary-welfare. Based on the introduction of HSR, our findings clarify and highlight the role of infrastructure construction on corporate asymmetric cost management behavior.

The impact of high speed railway on government expenditure on poverty alleviation in China —Evidence from Chinese poverty counties

In this paper, we evaluate the role of the high speed railway (HSR) project, one of the largest transportation infrastructure projects in the world, in poverty alleviation in China. This study combines county-level data from the China County Statistical Yearbooks with HSR data from the China Railway Yearbooks. The method of difference-in-differences is applied to examine the HSR connection effect on government expenditure in poverty alleviation across Chinese poverty counties over the period of 2010-2018. The results show that the HSR connection has a significantly positive impact on reducing government expenditure in poverty alleviation. Our results, which are based on alternative measurement of poverty alleviation and possible bias arising from endogeneity issue, are robust. This paper highlights that HSR can help achieve accessibility of rural area and poverty alleviation simultaneously. An understanding of the effect is critical for policymakers to promote intra-regional development, balancing efficiency and regional equality.

The impact mechanism of high-speed railway on regional green innovation spillover under multi-dimensional paths

As a major technological innovation, high-speed railway (HSR) has profoundly influenced the regional sustainable development (i.e., economy, society, and ecology). Meanwhile, green innovation is a critical catalyst for sustainable development. However, the impact of HSR on regional green innovation has received little attention. To fill the research gap, this paper reveals the driving effects of HSR on regional green innovation spillover by employing the three heat transfer methods in physics. Specifically, Stackelberg game models are constructed to imitate the production and sales distribution strategies of two competitive firms in the conduction path and the convection path. Furthermore, the regional green innovation spillover model under the radiation path is constructed. The main findings are as follows: (1) HSR has a significant positive impact on regional green innovation spillover. (2) After the HSR opening, apart from production cost and spillover elasticity, production distribution and carbon emission may affect the choice of regional green innovation in the conduction path. Sales distribution and price elasticity may have significant effects on the choice of regional green innovation in the convection path. (3) The size of regional green innovation spillover from HSR depends on changes in the accessibility of central and peripheral areas. (4) The regional green innovation spillover is negatively correlated with distance to HSR stations in the radiation path. This research provides a theoretical basis for improving the HSR network. Suggestions are put forward on how to carry out green innovation activities effectively. Innovation-driven strategies are suggested to be prioritized.

Analysis on the Impact of Zhengzhou-Xi’an High Speed Railway on Local Economy

This paper analyzes the ways and mechanism of the impact of high-speed railway on local economy, and summarizes the impact of the construction and operation of high-speed railway on local economy as four positive effects: agglomeration effect, diffusion effect, urbanization and regional economic integration, and a negative effect of siphon effect. Taking Zhengxi high-speed railway as an example, using different quantitative calculation methods, this paper analyzes the three effects of agglomeration effect, diffusion effect and urbanization, and finds that the accessibility and economic volume of cities along the line have been greatly improved before and after the opening of high-speed railway.

High-Speed Railway Opening and Corporate Fraud

The impact of high-speed railway (HSR) on corporate behavior has recently attracted both practical and theoretical interest. In this paper, based on a sample of A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2020 in China, we use a difference-in-difference model to explore the impact of HSR openings on corporate fraud and analyze its mechanism. We find that HSR introduction has several important implications. First, it reduces the tendency and frequency of corporate fraud. Second, HSR opening restrains corporate fraud by improving the external supervision level and reducing the financing constraints of the company. Third, the inhibitory effect of the HSR opening on corporate fraud is significant when the market competition is less intense, and the company’s internal control level is poor. Fourth, after distinguishing types of fraud, HSR opening can still significantly inhibit information disclosure fraud and manager fraud, but not operation fraud. These results indicate that HSR openings promote the flow of information and labor across regions, alleviating the information asymmetry of firms. Our findings are conducive to improving the governance environment of the listed companies, which provides new clues for discovering and restricting corporate fraud.

Transportation Infrastructure Construction and High-Quality Development of Enterprises: Evidence from the Quasi-Natural Experiment of High-Speed Railway Opening in China

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.

Analysis of the Impact of High-Speed Railway on County Economic Development Based on the Synthetic Control Method: The Hubei Province in China

Studying the impact of the high-speed railway (HSR) on economic growth has important practical significance and can provide a theoretical basis for government investment in infrastructure. In this study, the adoption of HSR was used for natural and rigorous exploration. Based on the panel data on counties in Hubei Province of China from 2001 to 2017, a synthetic control method was used to analyse the impact of HSR on the economic growth of county-level areas with different economic bases. The results showed that HSR had different influences on the economic development of county-level cities with different economic bases in the short term. The Wuhan-Guangzhou HSR had significantly promoted the gross domestic product (GDP) growth of Chibi City with a good economic foundation. The robustness test results revealed that the promoting effect was significant at a level of 3.7%. The Hefei-Wuhan section of the Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu HSR had significantly inhibited the GDP growth of Hong’an County by developing on a weak economic foundation. The robustness test results revealed that the inhibitory effect was significant at the level of 2.8%. However, the Hefei-Wuhan section had a stable and promoting effect on Macheng City. Based on the abovementioned conclusions, each county-level city should focus on long-term economic development, invest in HSR construction based on local conditions instead of blind expansion, make use of HSR to vigorously develop characteristic industries, and implement talent retention and introduction policies.

Association of High-Speed Rail and Tuberculosis Transmission in Newly Integrated Regions: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from China.

Objectives: The spread of tuberculosis (TB) is related to changes in the social network among the population and people’s social interactions. High-speed railway (HSR) fundamentally changed the integrated market across cities in China. This paper aims to examine the impact of HSR on TB transmission in newly integrated areas. Methods: By exploiting the opening and operation of the first HSR in Sichuan province as a quasi-natural experiment, we have collected and used the economic, social, and demographic data of 183 counties in Sichuan province from 2013 to 2016. Results: The new HSR line is associated with a 4.790 increase in newly diagnosed smear-positive TB cases per 100,000 people among newly integrated areas. On average, an additional increase of 34.178 newly diagnosed smear-positive TB cases occur every year in counties (or districts) covered by the new HSR. Conclusion: HSR development has significantly contributed to the transmission of TB. The public health system in China needs to pay more attention to the influences of new, mass public transportation.