Travel costs, trade, and market segmentation: Evidence from China's high‐speed railway

Using high‐speed railway construction as a natural experiment, this paper contributes to our understanding of how passenger‐oriented transportation infrastructure affects inter‐regional trade. The findings show that trade value increases and market segmentation decreases with high‐speed railway (HSR) expansion, indicating that movement of people fosters movement of freight. The heterogeneous analyses suggest that technology‐intensive industries and provinces with poorer pre‐existing ICT level are impacted more. The impact is driven by a substitution effect between HSR and conventional railways in passenger transportation service, and by accelerated information exchange and knowledge spillover.