The effects of high-speed rail on air passenger transport in China

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the effects of high-speed rail (HSR) on China’s air passenger transport from the perspective of airports. The difference-in-differences approach is used with unbalanced panel data of 206 airports over the period from 2006 to 2015. Our estimation results found that the negative effects of HSR on the growth rate of China’s air passengers is both statistically and economically significant. However, these adverse effects are not catastrophic.

KEYWORDS:

• High-speed rail
• air passenger transport
• China
• airport

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• B23
• C23

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ CEIC data, https://www.ceicdata.com.

² China had 208 civil airports during 2006–2015, 2 of which were not in operation in 2015.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China under grant number 16AJL009; the Education Department of Liaoning Province under grant number WQN 201723.