An Empirical Study About The Impact Of Opening China’s High-Speed Railway On The Quality Of Enterprise Export Products

Since China joined WTO in 2001,its foreign trade has developed rapidly,but it has the problems of low quality,low prices and low added value.Therefore,firms’ export product quality has long been an important subject in the field of international trade in China.With the rapid growth of export trade,China’s transportation network system also constantly updates and improves in recent years,especially the large-scale construction of high-speed railway network,which has played a vital role in promoting China’s export trade.In order to take full advantage of the positive external effects of infrastructure construction and help firms better cultivate new advantages in export competition,this paper,from the perspective of transportation infrastructure,analyzes the effects of opening high-speed railway on Chinese manufacturing firms’ product quality,which will provide more scientific and objective basis for the policy formulation and the infrastructure layout.Based on China’s 270 cities HSR data,firm-level micro data and customs data from 2000 to 2013,this paper uses DID method to explore the effects of opening high-speed railway on the Chinese firms’ export product quality.The results show that: Opening high-speed railway significantly promotes export product quality.In addition,production efficiency,market competition,the scale of firms and foreign capital can also enhance the quality,while firms’ age,the intensity of capital and financing constraints can reduce it.After considering endogenous problems and robustness tests,the results remain stable.The mechanism test shows that opening high-speed railway has a positive impact on export product quality through“innovation-driven effect” and “cost-driven effect”,but the impacts obviously vary among different cities,industries and products.Based on the previous empirical research results,this paper puts forward some targeted policy recommendations.First,relying on the construction of the high-speed railway network,we should attach importance to the innovation-driven development,accelerate the flow of innovation elements,enhance the overall innovation strength and implement "Quality Power Strategy".Second,we should start a balanced regional high-speed railway construction,coordinate the development of the western region and dig the potential of small cities.Third,we’d better implement different export policies of different industries.For labor-intensiveindustries that still have comparative export advantages,we must further develop their added value space;For capital-intensive industries that still belong to the shortcomings of China’s export trade,we should fully dig their development potential.Finally,for the purpose of "high-speed railway diplomacy",we should use a variety of foreign policies,such as the Belt and Road Initiative,International Import Expo and China-Africa cooperation.