Research On The Effect Of High-speed Railway On Urbanization

With the increasing density of high-speed railway networks,China has gradually entered the era of high-speed railways.During the period of full-scale construction and operation of high-speed railways,passenger traffic continues to increase and the city's economy develops rapidly.China has a vast territory,there are large differences in the development of various regions,and the level of urbanization is also different.The problem studied in this paper is the effect of high-speed railway on urbanization and the difference of high-speed railway on urbanization in different cities.Analyzing how the high-speed railway affects the urbanization of cities along the line is of great significance for studying the relationship between high-speed railway and urbanization.This article analyzes the effect of high-speed railway on urbanization from both theoretical and empirical aspects.In theory,the effects of high-speed railway on urbanization are divided into promotion and inhibition.The high-speed railway's role in promoting urbanization is reflected in the high-speed railway's impact on economic and industrial development,creating rich employment opportunities,improving urban infrastructure,and then attracting population migration,indirectly promoting urbanization along the cities.The inhibitory effect of high-speed railway on urbanization is reflected in the economic diffusion effect of high-speed railway,narrowing the gap between cities,and due to the emergence of urban diseases,the attractiveness of large cities to population is also gradually reduced,high-speed railway enhances the Accessibility,attracting population to spread to cities along the route.The empirical analysis in this paper is based on panel data of 259 cities in China from 2003 to 2017,and uses the two indicators of population and per capita residents' disposable income to divide cities across the country into five levels.The first level is composed of Beijing,Shanghai,and Tianjin.18 cities;the second-tier city contains 44 cities including Shijiazhuang,Taiyuan,Xuzhou,Changzhou;the third-tier city is composed of 94 cities including Dezhou,Rizhao,Datong,and Kaifeng;the fourth-tier city is composed of 70 cities including Guang'an,Jixi,and Xinzhou;the fifth-tier cities are composed of 33 small cities such as Chongzuo,Pingliang,and Jiayuguan.The five-level cities were established with continuous-time double-difference models and tested for robustness to study whether high-speed railways will affect urbanization.Through theoretical and empirical analysis,the following conclusions are finally drawn: First,the high-speed railway has a promoting effect on the urbanization of the second,third,fourth,and fifth tier cities,and has an inhibitory effect on the urbanization of the first tier cities.Second,the effects of high-speed railway on urbanization of different levels of cities are different and the degree of difference is large.The order of high-speed railway's effect on urbanization is in order of fifth-tier cities,fourth-tier cities,third-tier cities,second-tier cities,and finally first-tier cities.