The Empirical Study Of The Relationship Between China’s Transportation Infrastructure Construction And Total Factor Productivity

Since1998, China began to implement the proactive fiscal policy and promote thedevelopment of infrastructure construction, including the transportation infrastructure,after the financial crisis in2008, in order to stimulate economic growth, thegovernment began to implement the "four trillion" economic stimulus plan, of which alarge part was invested to the transportation infrastructure sector again. So, have thelarge scale of the transportation infrastructure construction effectively promoted theeconomic growth in China, and was this growth a long-term growth, it was clearly thebasis of economic policy’s rationality and a question to answer currently. Theorygenerally thought of transportation infrastructure will enhance the total factorproductivity and promote the economic growth for its "externalities effect". So thispaper attempted to judge the long term effects between transportation infrastructureconstruction and economic growth after year1998by the empirical test.With consideration of trade openness, human capital, and regimes, this paperexamines the immediate effect, lead-lag effect, spillover effect, and human capitalinteractive effect that the highway and railway infrastructure had on total factorproductivity increase during1998-2010. From the national scale, final results show thatthe immediate, lead-lag and space spillover effect that the railway infrastructure had onTFP is positive significantly, but there is no interactive effect. The immediate effect ofhighway infrastructure is not significant or is negative, the lead-lag effect is notsignificant, the space spillover effect is significant positive, the interactive effect is notsignificant.In the view of regional terms, in the eastern region, the immediate effect thatrailway transportation infrastructure had on the total factor productivity is significantpositive, the space spillover effect is significant positive, the interactive effect issignificant negative. The immediate effect that highway transportation infrastructurehad on the total factor productivity is not significant, space spillover effect is negativesignificant, the interactive effect is not significant; In the central area, the immediateeffect that railway transportation infrastructure had on the total factor productivity issignificant positive, the space spillover effect is significant positive, the interactiveeffect is significant negative. The immediate effect that highway transportationinfrastructure had on the total factor productivity is not significant, space spillover effect is not significant, the interactive effect is not significant; In the west area, theimmediate effect that railway transportation infrastructure had on the total factorproductivity is significant positive, the space spillover effect is not significant, theinteractive effect is significant negative. The immediate effect that highwaytransportation infrastructure had on the total factor productivity is not significant, spacespillover effect is not significant, the interactive effect is not significant.