Study On The Impact Of The Opening Of High-speed Rail On Pollution In Peripheral Cities

At present,China’s economic development has shifted from the stage of high speed growth to the stage of high quality development,and how to reduce pollution emissions in economic growth has become an important problem facing today’s society.In order to improve the local environment,local governments usually choose two ways to reduce pollution: one is to reduce pollution emissions through technological innovation,and the other is the cross-regional transfer of pollution;the former is an effective mechanism for pollution control,while the latter may only change the spatial distribution pattern of pollution.With the rapid development of high-speed railroads,regional integration has deepened and the cross-regional flow of production factors has become smoother,thus making the agglomeration and diffusion of polluting industries easier compared to the past and providing the possibility of pollution transfer.Although previous studies have shown that the opening of high-speed railways helps to improve the overall environmental quality,the central and peripheral cities are affected differently due to the existence of siphon and spillover effects.Based on this,it is of theoretical and practical significance to study the impact of the opening of high-speed rail on pollution layout.Based on the panel data of 196 peripheral cities from 2004 to 2019,this paper uses a spatial econometric model to explore the question of "whether high-speed rail interconnecting with central cities promotes the transfer of pollution to peripheral cities" from the perspective of urban interaction.The study finds that:(1)From the overall perspective,the global Moran’s I of the sample data during 2004-2019 is significantly greater than 0,which indicates that there is a strong positive correlation between industrial pollution emissions among cities,and from the local Moran’s I,the sample shows the characteristics of high-high and low-low clustering in general,and gradually shifts to low-low clustering over time.shift.(2)The central cities have obvious pollution spillover effects on the peripheral cities,and the interconnection of high-speed rail with the central cities will strengthen their pollution spillover to the peripheral cities and further promote the transfer of pollution to the periphery,and the conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests.(3)The opening of high-speed rail can bring clean-up effect to peripheral cities on the one hand,and accelerate pollution transfer on the other,and the total utility of high-speed rail opening depends on the sum of both effects.When the pollution scale of the central city is large,pollution transfer dominates,and the opening of high-speed rail is not conducive to the improvement of the environment in the peripheral cities.When the scale of pollution in the central city is small,the cleaning effect dominates,and the opening of high-speed rail will promote the improvement of the environment in the peripheral cities.(4)In the study of the cumulative effect of circles,it was found that the promoting effect of high-speed rail on pollution transfer was the largest within 250 km,showing an inverted U-shaped trend.(5)The study of city heterogeneity found that for the more economically developed peripheral cities,the more the opening of high-speed rail helps to shift pollution from the center to the peripheral cities.(6)Further study using the data of heavily polluting enterprises in listed companies found that the opening of high-speed rail led to an increase in the number of polluting enterprises in peripheral cities and a decrease in the number of polluting enterprises in central cities,which further supports that pollution transfer is brought about by the transfer of polluting enterprises.This paper enriches the literature related to high-speed rail and the environment,which is conducive to a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of high-speed rail construction and provides a scientific basis for coordinated regional development.Based on this,in view of the research results of this paper and the reality of environmental pollution,the following suggestions are put forward: First,give full play to the green effect of high-speed rail and optimize the layout of high-speed rail networks.Second,strengthen the division of labor and cooperation of regional environmental governance and enhance linkage governance.Third,implement a two-wheel drive model of environmental regulation and industrial upgrading.