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作者

来源

来源 JOURNAL OF URBAN ECONOMICS,Vol.98,P.98-123

语言

英文

关键字

Transportation infrastructure;High speed railway;Urban employment and specialization

作者单位

CEP, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom;CEP, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom

摘要

How does intercity passenger transportation shape urban employment and specialization patterns? To shed light on this question I study China’s High Speed Railway (HSR), an unprecedentedly large-scale network that connected 81 cities from 2003 to 2014 with trains running at speeds over 200 km/h. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I find that an HSR connection increases city-wide passenger flows by 10% and employment by 7%. To deal with the issues of endogenous railway placement and simultaneous public investments accompanying HSR connection, I examine the impact of a city’s market access changes purely driven by the HSR connection of other cities. The estimates suggest that HSR-induced expansion in market access increases urban employment with an elasticity between 2 and 2.5. Further evidence on sectoral employment suggests that industries with a higher reliance on nonroutine cognitive skills benefit more from HSR-induced market access to other cities.