Research On The Effect And Mechanism Of Transportation Infrastructure Construction On Regional Economic Disparity

In the context of common prosperity and development,the importance of narrowing the regional economic gap has become increasingly prominent.As a regional communication channel,transportation infrastructure can have a profound impact on regional economic disparities by promoting the flow of production factors and industrial structure changes.At present,China has entered the era of high-speed rail.Compared with traditional infrastructure,its impact on social economy has both generality and individuality.Therefore,it is of great theoretical and practical significance to analyze the effect and mechanism of transportation infrastructure construction on regional economic gap.Taking the opening of high-speed railway as an example,this paper analyzes the effect and mechanism of transportation infrastructure construction on regional economic gap from dynamic and static perspectives.First of all,we use the population-weighted coefficient of variation to measure the regional economic gap and analyze its space-time evolution characteristics.Then,the multi-period DID model is used to analyze the impact of transportation infrastructure construction on regional economic disparities.Then,verify the mechanism of the impact of transportation infrastructure construction on regional economic disparities.Finally,from the perspective of geographical location,resource endowment and urban scale,the heterogeneity of the impact of transportation infrastructure construction on regional economic disparities is analyzed.The main research conclusions are as follows:First,from the perspective of time sequence,the regional economic gap of 265prefecture-level cities has been expanding.From the perspective of the space-time evolution of the subregion,the regional economic gap in the eastern region has been widening,while the regional economic gap in the central,western and northeastern regions has been relatively stable,and the regional economic gap in the eastern region has expanded much faster than that in other regions.Secondly,during the period from 2003 to 2020,the impact of China’s transportation infrastructure construction on regional economic disparities will change over time.At the beginning of the high-speed railway,the regional economic gap will be widened.After a period of time(about 10 years),the construction of transportation infrastructure will reduce the regional economic gap.Third,the construction of transportation infrastructure affects the regional economic gap by changing the flow of labor,capital and other factors of production.At the initial stage of the opening of high-speed railway,promote the concentration of production factors to high-speed railway cities and expand the regional economic gap;After opening for a period of time(about 10 years),it will promote the diffusion of production factors around high-speed rail cities and narrow the regional economic gap.In addition,the construction of transportation infrastructure affects the regional economic gap by changing the regional industrial structure.Within a certain period of time(about 9 years),the opening of high-speed railway can promote the optimization of industrial structure and help to narrow the regional economic gap.Fourth,during the period from 2003 to 2020,the economic gap in the eastern part of China has expanded significantly,while the regional economic gap in the central and western regions and the northeast regions has been relatively stable.In addition,the construction of transportation infrastructure has significantly expanded the economic gap between cities with a scale of more than 5 million and non-resource-based cities.Based on the above conclusions,this paper puts forward three policy recommendations: first,improve the talent retention mechanism,promote the accumulation of human capital,and help regional economic development;The second is to optimize intra-regional traffic,promote interregional economic interaction,speed up the construction of transportation infrastructure,and promote the diffusion of production factors;Third,create an orderly business environment,promote the long-term development of industry,optimize the industrial structure,and promote the economic development of underdeveloped regions,thus narrowing the regional economic gap.