Research On The Impact Of High-Speed Railway On The Spatial Efficiency Of China’s Labor Market

The 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China(CPC)reported that the main contradiction in Chinese society has changed to an imbalance between the insufficient development and the people’s ever-increasing desires for a better life.China’s labor market has shifted from being focused on quantity to being focused on structure,with the development gap between regional labor markets,the mismatch between industrial employment,and the employment of low-quality labor being the main indicators of this change.The widening gap in incomes between regions is a clear indication of the current economic development’s unbalanced and inadequate issues.The spatial agglomeration or diffusion of labor and population migration,as the core factor of market integration and resource reallocation in economic structural transformation,can have an impact on economic output.Moving labor and other productive resources from activities with lower productivity to those with higher productivity can be a major factor in promoting economic growth,as it affects economic structure,employment structure and industrial structure.Research in economics has started to take into consideration the consequences of transportation development on the spatial allocation of resource factors,due to the emergence of New Economic Geography(NEG).The construction of highspeed railway(HSR)can enhance regional accessibility,which in turn can hasten the movement of people,goods,data,technology,capital and knowledge,thereby altering the economic geography.According to the New Economic Geography(NEG)theory,the improvement of transportation infrastructure decreases transportation costs and widens the market,while income(salary)serves as a labor factor price,which dictates labor mobility and influences the formation of spatial distribution of economic structure and income distribution pattern.Moreover,it also affects the equilibrium of employment,wage labor and city enterprises cluster in a regional structure and urban system.In China,the development of HSR is not equal amongst regions,which results in a discrepancy between the location of labor force,population and economic activity.In the face of diminishing population dividends,it is imperative to explore effective spatial planning strategies to promote the rational distribution of labor force and reduce the regional development gap,thereby reconstructing China’s economic spatial pattern.Previous studies have mainly concentrated on the influence of HSR on the wages and employment of both urban and rural inhabitants,but have not taken into consideration a more comprehensive outlook which suggests that HSR can enhance economic efficiency by influencing the spatial distribution of labor,economic clustering,industrial structure transformation and decrease income disparity at a global level,and so on.Evaluating policy and conducting linear research are the most common research methods,yet there is disagreement over the effects of HSR construction on the labor market,including policy impacts and spatial spillover effects,as well as the magnitude and direction of the impact on center-periphery and developed to less-developed regions.This paper examines the full scope of the impact of HSR construction on the spatial efficiency of China’s labor market.Utilizing the space-time contraction effect of HSR is essential for achieving an even and coordinated labor market spatial distribution,narrowing the regional economic development gap,reducing income inequality of citizens,and ultimately promoting a shared prosperity of the people.This paper begins by defining the concept of spatial efficiency of labor market,taking into consideration the two aspects of labor market employment(employment scale,employment agglomeration and employment structure)and income,in the context of the construction of High-Speed Railways.Firstly,combining theories from new economic geography,externality,agglomeration economics,and labor mobility,this paper establishes a correlation theoretical model between HSR construction and labor market spatial efficiency,which is based on Krugman’s center-periphery model,forming the fundamental theoretical research framework.Secondly,Arc GIS geospatial visualization and index analysis are employed to study the development process and spatial-temporal correlation between High-Speed Rail(HSR)and the labor market,thereby gaining an understanding of the facts and law characteristics.Thirdly,this paper takes the opening and running of HSR as a quasi-natural experiment,and uses a staggered DID model and multi-period dynamic differential method(DID)to investigate the net treatment effect of policy and income effect of HSR construction on spatial balance of employment(employment scale,employment agglomeration and employment structure)and income in urban labor market from 2000 to 2018.Additionally,the regional heterogeneity and influencing mechanism are also explored.Investigating the spatial spillover effect,geographical boundary and regional heterogeneity of HSR construction on the labor market,the spatial Dubin model was used to analyze the changes in regional accessibility due to the construction of HSR and the acceleration of ordinary railway.Finally,based on the research results,policy recommendations are suggested.This paper’s primary research findings can be summarised into three points.The employment effect.First,without HSR,cities’ employment scale and concentration of labor force remain relatively low,resulting in a mismatch of labor space.However,with the opening of HSR,employment in these cities is significantly increased,labor space mismatch is reduced,and regional industrial employment structure is improved and upgraded.HSR stations that open later tend to experience greater marginal benefits.Second,Fixed asset investment and labor force act as intermediary mechanisms that influence the industrial employment structure of the labor market,while income and housing price serve as intermediary mechanisms that shape the employment scale of the labor market.Third,its effects vary,yet cities across different regions still gain from it.The income effect.First,in comparison to cities without HSR,the introduction of HSR has led to a notable rise in the average salary of employees in HSR areas.Agglomeration of employment,alteration of economic structure,and advancement of scientific and technological innovation are the intermediary pathways through which HSR affects urban residents’ income.Second,When the city size is below the threshold value,the improvement of regional accessibility has a slight negative effect on the income of residents in these cities.When the size of a city surpasses the threshold value,the enhancement of regional accessibility has a considerable positive effect on the income of inhabitants in these cities,and big HSR cities have a certain siphon effect.Third,enhanced regional transport has mitigated the financial disparity between cities in the nation.The spatial spillover effect.First,enhancing accessibility leads to an expansion of local employment and job concentration directly,and also has a spatial spillover effect that increases the employment scale and job agglomeration in other areas.From 2012 to2018,regional accessibility was improved,which in turn increased urban residents’ income through local effect and boosted employment in the secondary and tertiary industries in other cities,consequently leading to a rise in residents’ income.Second,the time dimension has a dependence.Higher employment and income levels during the early stages of a person’s career can enhance the effectiveness of their labor market participation in the future.In regions with either high or low labor market efficiency,similar spatial agglomeration is observed.Enhanced regional accessibility has a positive effect on employment in all areas,both in the short and long term.This paper offers an innovative concept: First,to quantify and evaluate the overall and different aspects of the spatial efficiency of labor market,it is necessary to derive and define the spatial efficiency of labor market from the traditional economic efficiency concept.Second,introducing the changes of transportation cost and land rent caused by HSR construction into Krugman’s(1991)center-periphery model and Redding’s(2015)multi-region extension model is a theoretical innovation.Third,innovation in the application of research methods is the third,the staggered DID model being used to differentiate between each cohort and the duration of intervention,thus allowing for a more precise estimation of the average and marginal treatment effects.Examining the nonlinear effects of HSR on the income of inhabitants in cities of varying sizes,the threshold model was employed.This paper could be enhanced by revising and rephrasing it.First,the full characteristics of HSR networks cannot be accurately determined through the weighted average travel time and network density of train departure,stop and arrival frequency,as data acquisition is limited.Second,Due to the limitations of sample processing,individual micro-data such as labor flow and labor income are not matched with city-level data,resulting in the loss of some detailed observations on the micro-level,including population flow,labor flow and wage income.