ABSTRACT
By adjusting the spatial and temporal distance between small and medium-sized cities and provincial capital cities, high-speed rail has reshaped the distribution of innovation resources, and eventually significantly affected China’s economy. Employing data from 284 Chinese prefecture-level cities for the period of 2005 to 2015, this paper uses the propensity score matching model (PSM-DID) to analyze the relationship between the high-speed rail opening and urban innovation in China. Our empirical results show that: 1) the opening of high-speed rail significantly improves the overall level of urban innovation in China, but affected by “the distance from provincial capital” which present a “∽”-type structural feature 2) the mechanism of the effect of high-speed rail on urban innovation is mainly to promote economic agglomeration; and 3) the impact of high-speed rail opening on urban innovation has gradually declined characteristics based on opening time and regional economy heterogeneity.
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Notes on contributors
Shuang Pan
Shuang Pan, Doctor, Lecture of Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics. His major filed of interest are urban innovation, Transportation Economic and corporate finance.
Hao-Nan Wang
Hao-nan Wang, Doctor, Lecture of Guangdong University of Finance. His major filed of interest are financial risk and macro-control, machine learning and capital market.
Yangda Li
Yangda Li is a PhD student at the University of Glasgow. He has earned a master’s degree in Project and Enterprises Management (with distinction) from UCL.His major research interests are strategy management, international business, andForeign trade of small and medium-sized enterprises
Li-Bo Chen
Libo Chen is a Ph.D. student in economics in University of Southampton. His major filed of interest are environmental economics, health economics and economic history.