Research On The Economic Effect Of High-speed Railway Network

High-speed railway as one of the most important ways of modern transportation,it has important strategic significance in improving the regional traffic situation,enhancing the capacity and efficiency of resource transportation,promoting the development of related industries of national economy,stimulating regional economic growth and promoting coordinated development among regions.After more than a decade of unremitting efforts,China's high-speed rail has grown from scratch,and has gradually become stronger,achieving the world's first high-speed rail transport capacity.By the end of 2017,the operating mileage of high-speed railway in China has reached more than 25,000 kilometers,and a high-speed railway network has been basically formed between major cities in China.In the process of vigorously building high-speed railway,the high investment cost is the core factor to be considered,and the operating income lags behind its huge investment.Therefore,it is of great significance to study the economic effect of high-speed railway network.In order to clarify the impact mechanism of high-speed railway construction on economic development,this paper selected panel data of 283 prefecture-level cities from 2001 to 2016,and studied the economic effects of high-speed railway construction based on difference-in-differences model.Firstly,this paper explores the direct and indirect effects of high-speed railways on the economy from a theoretical perspective,and through the literature to sort out the impact of high-speed rail on economic development in terms of economic growth,population mobility and industrial structure optimization.And then,based on the difference-in-differences model,the impact of high-speed railway on economic growth is analyzed from the perspective of whether high-speed railway is opened or not.At the same time,in order to investigate the impact of different urban agglomerations,the sample cities are classified from different angles to study the heterogeneous effects.Finally,based on the original model,the interactive variables are introduced to study the indirect effects of high-speed railway construction on economic development.The research results show that:(1)the opening of high-speed railway has a positive effect on regional economic development,and the more high-speed railway lines are opened,the greater the role of promoting GDP growth.From the perspective of impact,the opening of high-speed railway construction can bring about 0.01%GDP growth,and every additional high-speed railway construction can bring about 0.11%GDP growth.After eliminating provincial capitals and municipalities,the role of high-speed railways in promoting the economy is even more pronounced.(2)The impact of high-speed railway operation on different regions is different.Whether high-speed railway is opened or not has a significant impact on eastern and central cities,but has no significant impact on the economic development of western cities.The increase of high-speed railway lines has the greatest impact on the economic development of central cities,followed by Eastern cities,and relatively weak impact on Western cities.(3)The impact of the opening of high-speed rail on third-tier cities and fourth-tier cities is significantly positive,but the impact on first-tier cities,second-tier cities and fifth-tier cities is not significant.The regression coefficients of high-speed rail operation on the economic development of different levels of urban agglomerations are significant at the level of 1%,but the degree of impact is different.The increase in the number of high-speed rail operation has the most prominent impact on the fourth-tier cities.(4)The construction and operation of high-speed railway has a direct positive impact on economic development.It also promotes economic development by affecting the flow of labor factors and the change of in industrial structure,which indirectly drives the development of the national economy.