Research On The Influence Of High-Speed Rail On Regional Human Capital

China is currently in the 14 th Five-Year Plan’s development phase,and its economy is undergoing a transition from fast increase to high-quality development in a critical generation.At the same time,economic growth slowed down,relying on traditional production factors to promote economic growth into an unsustainable situation.Human capital,a factor of production,has established itself as a key driver of regional economic expansion.In addition,when it comes to operational distance globally,as a new means of transportation,high-speed rail comes in front.which enables distant cities to have a shorter time distance and gradually becomes the main tool for labor migration.The Yangtze River Economic Belt,which has significant social and economic advantages,spreads the three main parts of China: the East,the West,and the Middle,One of the national policies,it’s primarily brought out by the government.Using the Yangtze River Economic Belt as the proposed study will promote the high-speed rail externality,the transfer of the "demographic dividend" into the "talent dividend," and the levels of engagement of China’s economy.In this regard,this article analyzes how the establishment of high-speed rail will actually impact regional human capital using the Yangtze River Economic Belt as the research area.This study explored the transmission mechanism by which the opening of high-speed rail impacts human capital in the theoretical analysis section.It also examines the shifting trend and spatial distribution of human capital in the research field.In the empirical analysis section,a difference-difference model was utilized to investigate the impact of high-speed railway opening on regional human capital applying balance panel data from 108 cities in 11 provinces of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2008 to 2019.Secondly,robustness test was conducted by parallel trend test,PSM-DID test,placebo test,control variable lagging one period,and shortening sample period.At the same time,the mechanism of the implication of the opening of high-speed rail on human capital is then analyzed utilizing mediating effect model,with market size,high-quality talent flow,and corporate aggregation as the mediating variables.The heterogeneity of different river basins,various lines of city government and sizes of cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt region is analyzed.Finally,this paper uses instrumental variable method to alleviate the endogeneity problems that may exist in the empirical process of this paper.The study’s findings,which were based on theoretical and empirical assessment,are as follows: First,the opening of high-speed rail in the Yangtze River Economic Belt significantly increased the level of human capital throughout the sample study period.This core conclusion held true despite the use of instrumental variables to diminish endogeneity and a number of robustness tests.Second,The inauguration of high-speed rail can indirectly increase regional human capital by supporting market scale expansion,the movement of key talent,and industrial agglomeration,according to a mechanism test.Thirdly,as the Yangtze River Economic Belt spans the East and the West,there are differences in geographical location,political resource endowment,city size and other aspects.The Yangtze River Economic Belt’s upper reaches are where the opening of high-speed rail has a more conspicuous effect on the rise of human capital,as shown by a heterogeneity test,regular prefecture-level cities,as well as smaller and medium-sized ones,among which it has a negative impact on human capital of cities with political resources and large and medium-sized cities.Therefore,in order to give full play to the enhancement of human capital caused by the externality of high-speed rail construction,this paper puts forward some policy suggestions based on the empirical results,such as continuously accelerating the improvement of high-speed rail network construction,continuously strengthening inter-regional economic ties and continuously vigorously developing higher education.