Premium
Does high‐speed rail connection really promote local economy? Evidence from China’s Yangtze River Delta
Author(s) -
Gao Yanyan,
Song Shunfeng,
Sun Jun,
Zang Leizhen
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
review of development economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1467-9361
pISSN - 1363-6669
DOI - 10.1111/rode.12642
Subject(s) - china , instrumental variable , yangtze river , connection (principal bundle) , panel data , economics , delta , construct (python library) , restructuring , population , economy , economic geography , econometrics , geography , engineering , computer science , finance , demography , sociology , programming language , archaeology , structural engineering , aerospace engineering
High‐speed rail (HSR) has led to a transportation revolution in China. This paper uses the county‐level panel data of China’s Yangtze River Delta to investigate the effect of HSR connection on local economy. To address the issue of endogenous HSR route placement, we use a straight‐line strategy to construct potential HSR connection variables as instrumental variables of the actual HSR connection. Both the difference‐in‐differences and instrumental variable methods show that HSR connection impedes local economy, especially in peripheral regions. The impediment effect is channeled through population reallocation from peripheral to core areas and the restructuring of industries.