An Empirical Study Of The Impact Of Transportation Infrastructure On Total Factor Productivity In Western China

Since 2000,the construction of transportation infrastructure in the western region of China has gained impressive achievements with the support of national policies.As the foundation of the national economy,it ensures the normal operation of social and economic activities and plays a very important role in promoting investment,restructuring,and steady growth.It is embodied in two aspects: firstly,the direct investment to transportation infrastructure can stimulate economic growth;secondly,the externality of transportation infrastructure can promote the flow of production factors,thereby reducing costs of social transaction and improving economic efficiency.The neoclassical economic theory points out that the long-term sustained growth of the economy mainly depends on technological progress or efficiency improvement,that is,the improvement of total factor productivity.Therefore,in recent years,more scholars have proposed harnessing total factor productivity to measure the quality of regional economic development.By teasing up relevant literatures at home and abroad,it is found that the current literature focuses on the impact of transportation infrastructure on GDP,and lacks research on the impact of total factor productivity,especially its impact in the western region.Therefore,this thesis conducts an empirical study on the impact of western transportation infrastructure on total factor productivity.In order to achieve the above goals,this thesis mainly studies from the following aspects:Firstly,it sorts out the related literatures at home and abroad from the spillover effects on economic growth and total factor productivity of transportation infrastructure,and the relationship between them.And it analyzes the impact mechanism of transportation infrastructure on total factor productivity to lay the theoretical foundation for the later research.Secondly,it conducts a status analysis.Based on the infrastructure data of transportation in the western region from 2000 to 2017,this thesis will analyze and summarize,in a describable way,highway infrastructure and railway infrastructure growth rate and network density respectively in the western region.Then,based on the SFA production function model,it calculates the total factor productivity of 12 provinces(autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government)in western regions from 2000 to 2017.The results indicate that the total factor productivity of the western region has maintained steady growth during the sample period.Thirdly,it conducts an empirical analysis.The setting of the measurement model is introduced first,including the setting of the spatial panel measurement model and the spatial weight matrix.Then,based on the previous calculation of the total factor productivity value,it will conduct spatial autocorrelation test for the total factor productivity of the provinces(autonomous regions and municipalities)in the western region.With the LM test and Hausman test results,it uses the spatial panel measurement model developed in recent years,respectively construct 0-1 spatial,distance spatial and economic distance spatial weight matrix.From the empirical study of the impact of transport infrastructure on total factor productivity in western regions from 2010 to 2017,it yields the following conclusions:(1)Every 1% increase in railway transportation infrastructure will significantly increase local total factor productivity by 0.0043%.In all grades of highway infrastructure,each 1% increase in expressways,primary roads,and secondary roads will significantly drive local factor productivity increased by 0.001%,0.002%,and 0.0011% respectively.But for tertiary roads,four-level roads,and off-highway road infrastructure,they did not pass significant tests,which shows that the lower the road grade,the smaller the impact on total factor productivity.Therefore,railway and high-grade highway infrastructure are the main drivers for promoting local total factor productivity growth.However,compared with the empirical results based on national data,the direct effect coefficient of it from railway infrastructure,highways,primary roads and secondary roads in the western region are less than the national level.(2)The spatial spillover effect of railway infrastructure and high-grade highway infrastructure in the western region is negative,which indicates that with the increase of railways and high-grade highways in the region,it will weaken the total factor productivity to some extent.And the weakening effect of high-grade highways is less than that of railways.In short,the transportation infrastructure in the western region has a positive direct effect and a negative spatial spillover effect.(3)Among the selected control variables,industrial structure,openness degree and human capital can significantly promote the growth of regional total factor productivity.Finally,combined with the results of theoretical analysis,current situation research and spatial measurement model,the following countermeasures and suggestions are put forward for the economic and social development of the Western Region:(1)to increase investment and policy support to the transportation infrastructure in the western region,in particular to strengthening the railway infrastructure and high-grade highway infrastructure.Improve the integrated transportation network system in the western Region;(2)adjust the industrial structure and achieve the coordination between the transportation infrastructure and other facilities;(3)increase the investment of human capital and improve the level of education,reducing the outflow of human capital in backward areas with the development of transportation infrastructure and better promoting local economic growth.