High-speed rail and urban innovation: based on the perspective of labor mobility

Abstract

High-speed rail (HSR) can enhance the inter-regional flow of labor factors, which is conducive to promoting knowledge exchange and the formation of innovation. Using prefecture-level data and the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS), and adopting a difference-in-differences model, we explore the effect of HSR connection on urban innovation as well as its mechanisms. The results indicate that compared with non-HSR cities, the innovation in connected cities significantly improves after HSR connection. The results remain robust after using an instrumental variable to deal with the possible endogeneity problem caused by the non-random placement of the HSR routes. Further investigations on the mechanisms show that one reason for the innovation improvement in HSR cities is the flow of talents from non-HSR cities to connected ones. The other reason for this increase is that HSR reinforces the interaction of talents among cities along the HSR routes.

Keywords:

• High-speed rail
• flow of labor factors
• urban innovation
• difference-in-differences model

Notes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The database is jointly compiled by the Fudan Institute of Industrial Development, Yicai Research Institute, Research Institute of Chinese Economy, and Fudan University.

2 We thank the reviewer for pointing this out. Housing prices should indeed be added as a control variable in our model. However, there is a lack of city-level housing price data in China. Currently, housing price data in China are mainly released by the National Bureau of Statistics, but it counts housing price data for only 70 large and medium-sized cities, so the data for most cities are missing.

3 The event window for our analysis is 2001–2016.

4 This study eliminates 50 large cities to alleviate endogenous issues. To be consistent with the baseline regression, here we also exclude these city samples.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chang'an Wang

Chang'an Wang is a Ph.D student in Research Institute of Economics and Management, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. His research interests include industrial and agricultural economics. His articles have appeared in Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, and Chinese Journal of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, and Journal of Commercial Economics.

Junqian Wu

Junqian Wu is an associate research fellow in China Western Economic Research Center, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. His research interests include agricultural economics and rural development in China. His articles have appeared in Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, and China Economic Quarterly, and Management World, and Chinese Rural Economy, and China Soft Science, and China Population, Resources and Environment .

Xiaoqian Liu

Xiaoqian Liu is a Ph.D student in Research Institute of Economics and Management, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. Her research interests include industrial and land economics. Her articles have appeared in Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, and Chinese Journal of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, and Journal of JiShou University.