High-Speed Railway and Regional Economic Growth: An Empirical Study Based on Market Potential

Abstract

This paper presents empirical work in investigating the effect of high-speed railway’s impact on regional economic growth. The study selects the major cities nationwide as its research objects and introduces market potential indicator which varies with the reduction of railway travel time. The total sample estimation’s result prove s that HSR’s effect on per capital GDP is negative, but it has a positive impact on the population. When the samples are grouped to estimate, it proves that the development of high-speed rail is conducive to the further rise of big cities, but not to the development of small and mediumsized cities. For the areas where HSR connect s to a network, HSR compresses space and time and promote s the cooperation or communication among cities. For the areas where HSR is relatively backward, HSR increases its marginalization, resulting in a negative impact. Therefore, it is believed that the development of China’s HSR should pay attention to rational distribution, give more consideration to backward areas, and promote the coordinated development of the region.