A Study Of The Impact Of High-speed Railway Construction On Enterprise Innovation

The layout of high-speed railway has changed from "four verticals and four horizontals" to "eight verticals and eight horizontals",which not only reflects the "speed of China",but also has altered economic structure in China.The construction of high-speed railway has reduced the impact of traffic distance,and then promoted the flow of elements such as labor,capital,and information etc.,which creates novel development opportunities for cities of all sizes and has a profound impact on the evolvement of enterprises.Based on panel data at high-speed railway-city-enterprise level,this paper establishes a multi-period DID model of high-speed railway construction which specifically analyzes the impact of high-speed railway construction on enterprise innovation and its mechanism followed by a robustness test and heterogeneity analysis of the empirical results.According to the empirical results,this article concludes to three main points.Firstly,the construction of high-speed railway has significantly stimulated the innovation level of enterprises.The construction of the first high-speed railway can increase the number of patents of local listed companies by about 11.5%.Secondly,the impact of high-speed railway construction on the innovation level of listed companies plays a role through the internal human capital of the company and the external marketization level.To be specific,the construction of high-speed railway has reduced the impact of traffic distance,promoting exchanges among them and further studies for enterprise employees,in a chain then improving the level of human capital and affecting innovation.On the other hand,by improving the external market environment,that is,increasing the supply of factors,product demand and intensifying market competition,thereby it promotes the innovation level of enterprises.Thirdly,it is to increase the demand for innovation by increasing the sales revenue of the company.Finally,the impact of high-speed railway construction on enterprise innovation is heterogeneous.Compared to their counterparts,enterprises without partners or in non-central cities or non-state-owned enterprises,show a greater impact by high-speed railway construction.According to the empirical results,this article draws three suggestions.First,regional development should be considered when planning high-speed railway lines in the future.Priority should be given to non-central cities and the ones with low marketization levels.Next,when promoting the integration of industry,education and research,we should attach importance to the role of spatial distance in economic development.And a mix of universities,research institutes and enterprises should be rationally allocated.Third point is to pay much attention to the role of talents in innovation,and cultivate creative workers.Local governments should perform an excellent part of introducing outstanding talents and regulating training mechanisms to optimize the labor market.