China's Modern Railway,Human Capital Improvement And Economic Growth

The impact of transportation infrastructure on economic growth has always been a concern.In recent years,transportation infrastructure has achieved leapfrog development and has become a booster for economic growth in China.In modern society,the impact of transportation infrastructure cannot be ignored.As a new mode of transportation,the emergence of railway is a qualitative improvement of transportation infrastructure at that time,which can have an important impact on economic growth.In modern China,what kind of influence did the railway have on the economy?There is not much literature on quantitative research of modern Chinese railways.In addition to further enriching the research results in this field,the research in this article has strong practical significance.In China,it can provide reference for the current historical experience of transportation infrastructure construction,especially it can be used as a reference for the construction of high-speed rail lines and stations,and it can also explore the reasons for the imbalance of economic development between regions from a historical perspective.To this end,this article consults a large number of relevant historical data,manually sorts out relevant data including railways,economy and human capital,in order to examine the short-term and long-term impact of modern railways on economic growth,and conduct in-depth analysis of its impact mechanism.First,this paper draws on the existing research results,based on the core-periphery model(C-P model),introduces human capital factors,and establishes a theoretical model of the impact of transportation infrastructure on economic growth.The transportation infrastructure affects economic growth and its internal mechanism are systematically simulated.The results found that transportation infrastructure can promote regional economic growth by promoting regional human capital accumulation,revealing the internal mechanism of transportation infrastructure affecting economic growth,and providing theoretical support for the empirical part of this article.Second,this article uses the number of international students,church school education,and national new-style education to measure modern human capital,and measures short-term economic growth based on industrialization,urbanization,and national capitalist enterprise development.From the perspective of geographic distribution and statistical characteristics,the above indicators are analyzed.The results found that geographical distribution of these indicators is very close to the distribution of modern railways,and through the means of correlation testing,it is verified that there is indeed a positive correlation between modern railways,modern human capital and short-term economic growth.Refer to the above process,it is same as the indicators of the distribution density and number of college students,middle school students,and elementary school students that represent modern human capital.In addition,similar to the analysis the indicators of the per capita GDP,total GDP,per capita industrial and agricultural output value,industrial and agricultural output value,and population density that measure long-term economic growth.We found that their geographical distribution is basically consistent with the distribution of modern railways,and there is also a significant positive correlation between modern railways,modern human capital and long-term economic growth.Third,this paper uses the two-way fixed effect model and the multiple linear regression model to empirically analyze the short-term impact of modern railways on economic growth,and reveal its internal mechanism from the perspective of human capital.The results showed that modern railways had a positive impact on the short-term economic growth.Compared with unopened areas,the modern railway opened areas had a higher level of industrialization and urbanization,as well as more new national capitalist enterprises and capital.In addition,we also found that modern railways promoted the accumulation of local human capital by promoting the dissemination of new knowledge,thereby promoting short-term economic growth.That is,the modern railway areas opened to have more new international students and more developed church school education and national new-style education.Fourth,this article empirically tests the long-term impact of modern railways on economic growth based on multiple linear regression models,and still explores its internal mechanism from the perspective of human capital.The results found that modern railways can have a long-term positive impact on economic growth.This is manifested in areas where railways are opened in modern times,which will have higher per capita GDP,total GDP,per capita industrial and agricultural output value,industrial and agricultural output value,and population density in modern times.In addition,we also found that modern railways promoted long-term economic growth by promoting the long-term accumulation of human capital.That is,the modern railway areas will have a higher density and number of college students,middle school students,and primary school students in modern times.