Transportation Infrastructure And Regional Economic Development:

China's economic development has entered a "new normal".One of its main characteristics is the slowdown of economic growth.The imbalance of regional development has a long history,and the economic growth of relatively backward areas has always been the focus of attention of government agencies and economists.The western development strategy,the plan for the rise of the central region and the "four trillion" plan to deal with the global economic crisis in 2008 are all devoted to solving these two problems.The construction of transportation infrastructure is an important means for them.Large-scale transportation investment has a profound impact on the economy.In this context,we are mainly concerned about two issues:whether the investment in transportation infrastructure promotes economic growth;and whether the investment in transportation is conducive to narrowing the regional development gap and improving the unbalanced situation of regional development.Firstly,this paper combs the theory and research on the relationship between transport infrastructure and economic growth from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives.Based on the relative vacancies of existing research,this paper puts forward the main research contents:(1)From the two dimensions of direct effect and spillover effect,it explores the direction and extent of different types of transport infrastructure to China's economic growth(2)From the two dimensions of direct effect and spillover effect,it explores the different impact of different types of transport infrastructure on economic growth in different regions of China(eastern,central and western).Then,from the two dimensions of time and space,traffic infrastructure operating mileage density,traffic infrastructure investment and transport capacity represented by traffic volume and turnover,the development status of China's transport infrastructure is analyzed.Finally,according to the principle of importance,as two most important transport infrastructure,railway and highway are selected as the object of empirical analysis.Using provincial data from 2003 to 2016,a spatial panel econometric model is constructed.MLE estimation is made by STATAMP software,and the role of railway and highway in China's economic growth is analyzed.The empirical analysis concludes that the direct and spatial spillover effects of railway and highway transport infrastructure on economic growth are positive at the present stage.The contribution of local highway to local economic growth is higher than that of local railway,while the contribution of foreign highway to local economic growth is higher than that of foreign railway.Increasing the construction of transportation infrastructure plays an active role in economic growth,balancing regional economic development and narrowing the gap of regional economic development.According to the regional division method of "East,Midwest and West",which has great influence at present,this paper proves that different types of transportation infrastructure have obvious differences in the impact of economic growth in different regions through empirical analysis.This paper puts forward corresponding policy recommendations based on this conclusion at last.