IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceps/v82y2022ipbs0038012122000532.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does the opening of high-speed railways improve urban livability? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhao, Junfeng
  • Yan, Jinling
  • Ran, Qiying
  • Yang, Xiaodong
  • Su, Xufeng
  • Shen, Jianliang

Abstract

With the spread of “urban disease”, urban livability has aroused common concern in academic circles at home and abroad. High-speed railway opening is substantially affecting the development of cities. Based on the data of 271 cities in China from 2005 to 2018, this paper applies the entropy method to calculate urban livability level, and then the difference-in-differences (DID) model and mediatory effect model are constructed to test the impact and mechanism of high-speed railway (HSR) opening on urban livability. The findings show that: (1) Overall, HSR opening has significantly improved urban livability by 13.04%. After alleviating the endogenous problem and conducting a series of robustness tests, the conclusions are still valid. (2) Mechanism analysis indicates that HSR opening improves urban livability by promoting economic growth, talent agglomeration and industrial structure upgrading. Among them, the industrial structure upgrading effect is the strongest, followed by talent agglomeration and economic growth. (3) The heterogeneity analysis shows that the promotion effect of HSR opening on urban livability is more significant in the central and western regions and large-sized cities. Accordingly, the feasible path to improve urban livability through HSR opening is proposed. Finally, in the face of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world economy, more channels to enhance urban livability are expected to cope with the future “the global talent war”.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhao, Junfeng & Yan, Jinling & Ran, Qiying & Yang, Xiaodong & Su, Xufeng & Shen, Jianliang, 2022. "Does the opening of high-speed railways improve urban livability? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PB).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:82:y:2022:i:pb:s0038012122000532
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2022.101275
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038012122000532
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.seps.2022.101275?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yue, Song & Nan, Sha, 2019. "Railway speedup and firms’ total factor productivity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 21-23.
    2. Fan Zhang & Feng Wang & Jinghua Ou & Shujie Yao, 2019. "Role of high-speed rail on social fixed assets investments in China," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 221-244, July.
    3. Albalate, Daniel & Fageda, Xavier, 2016. "High speed rail and tourism: Empirical evidence from Spain," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 174-185.
    4. Wang, Chao & Zhan, Jinyan & Xin, Zhongling, 2020. "Comparative analysis of urban ecological management models incorporating low-carbon transformation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    5. Ning, Lutao & Wang, Fan & Li, Jian, 2016. "Urban innovation, regional externalities of foreign direct investment and industrial agglomeration: Evidence from Chinese cities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 830-843.
    6. Zhang, Weike & Tian, Xiaoli & Yu, Ao, 2020. "Is high-speed rail a catalyst for the fourth industrial revolution in China? Story of enhanced technology spillovers from venture capital," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    7. Miller, Harvey J. & Witlox, Frank & Tribby, Calvin P., 2013. "Developing context-sensitive livability indicators for transportation planning: a measurement framework," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 51-64.
    8. Tanaka, Shinsuke, 2015. "Environmental regulations on air pollution in China and their impact on infant mortality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 90-103.
    9. Gabriel Ahlfeldt & Pantelis Koutroumpis & Tommaso Valletti, 2017. "Speed 2.0: Evaluating Access to Universal Digital Highways," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 586-625.
    10. Jin, Mengjie & Lin, Kun-Chin & Shi, Wenming & Lee, Paul T.W. & Li, Kevin X., 2020. "Impacts of high-speed railways on economic growth and disparity in China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 158-171.
    11. Marsal-Llacuna, Maria-Lluïsa & Colomer-Llinàs, Joan & Meléndez-Frigola, Joaquim, 2015. "Lessons in urban monitoring taken from sustainable and livable cities to better address the Smart Cities initiative," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 90(PB), pages 611-622.
    12. Wang, Jiating & Cai, Siyuan, 2020. "The construction of high-speed railway and urban innovation capacity: Based on the perspective of knowledge Spillover," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    13. Yu Sun & Yin Cui, 2018. "Analyzing the Coupling Coordination among Economic, Social, and Environmental Benefits of Urban Infrastructure: Case Study of Four Chinese Autonomous Municipalities," Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Hindawi, vol. 2018, pages 1-13, July.
    14. Wang, Xiaoxiao & Shi, Ruiting & Zhou, Ying, 2020. "Dynamics of urban sprawl and sustainable development in China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    15. Li, Hao & Guo, Huanxiu, 2021. "Spatial spillovers of pollution via high-speed rail network in China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 138-152.
    16. Kong, Qunxi & Shen, Chenrong & Li, Rongrong & Wong, Zoey, 2021. "High-speed railway opening and urban green productivity in the post-COVID-19: Evidence from green finance," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    17. Zhu, Xinhua & Qian, Tiannan & Wei, Yigang, 2020. "Do high-speed railways accelerate urban land expansion in China? A study based on the multi-stage difference-in-differences model," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    18. Kamga, Camille, 2015. "Emerging travel trends, high-speed rail, and the public reinvention of U.S. transportation," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 111-120.
    19. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    20. Matthew Gabel & Kenneth Scheve, 2007. "Estimating the Effect of Elite Communications on Public Opinion Using Instrumental Variables," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(4), pages 1013-1028, October.
    21. Guo, Yunxiang & Yu, Wenhao & Chen, Zhanlong & Zou, Renwei, 2020. "Impact of high-speed rail on urban economic development: An observation from the Beijing-Guangzhou line based on night-time light images," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    22. Tang, Chenghui & Guan, Mingming & Dou, Jianmin, 2021. "Understanding the impact of High Speed Railway on urban innovation performance from the perspective of agglomeration externalities and network externalities," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    23. Szopik-Depczyńska, Katarzyna & Kędzierska-Szczepaniak, Angelika & Szczepaniak, Krzysztof & Cheba, Katarzyna & Gajda, Waldemar & Ioppolo, Giuseppe, 2018. "Innovation in sustainable development: an investigation of the EU context using 2030 agenda indicators," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 251-262.
    24. Wang-Sheng Lee, 2013. "Propensity score matching and variations on the balancing test," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 47-80, February.
    25. Yin, Ping & Lin, Zhibin & Prideaux, Bruce, 2019. "The impact of high-speed railway on tourism spatial structures between two adjoining metropolitan cities in China: Beijing and Tianjin," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    26. Fu, Bo & Yu, Danlin & Zhang, Yaojun, 2019. "The livable urban landscape: GIS and remote sensing extracted land use assessment for urban livability in Changchun Proper, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    27. Wang, Feng & Wei, Xianjin & Liu, Juan & He, Lingyun & Gao, Mengnan, 2019. "Impact of high-speed rail on population mobility and urbanisation: A case study on Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 99-114.
    28. Zou, Wei & Chen, Liangheng & Xiong, Junke, 2021. "High-speed railway, market access and economic growth," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1282-1304.
    29. Liu, Tie-Ying & Su, Chi-Wei, 2021. "Is transportation improving urbanization in China?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    30. Jinling Yan & Junfeng Zhao & Xiaodong Yang & Xufeng Su & Hailing Wang & Qiying Ran & Jianliang Shen, 2021. "Does Low-Carbon City Pilot Policy Alleviate Urban Haze Pollution? Empirical Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-20, October.
    31. Lin, Yatang, 2017. "Travel costs and urban specialization patterns: Evidence from China’s high speed railway system," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 98-123.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guo, Zhangdong & Zhang, Xiaoning, 2024. "Has the healthy city pilot policy improved urban air quality in China? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    2. Yan, Hong & Yi, Xing & Jiang, Jiachen & Bai, Caiquan, 2024. "Can information technology construction alleviate household energy poverty? Empirical evidence from the “broadband China” Pilot Policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    3. Liu, Xize & Chen, Wendong & Chen, Xuewu & Chen, Jingxu & Cheng, Long, 2023. "Analyzing sustainable competitiveness of inter-city coach from the impact of high-speed railway opening in Jiangsu Province, China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Jinling Yan & Junfeng Zhao & Xiaodong Yang & Zhimeng Zhu & Qiying Ran, 2024. "Is producer services agglomeration a “new engine” for urban green economic development? an econometric analysis of Chinese cities," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(7), pages 17157-17183, July.
    5. Huang, Yan & Ma, Liang & Cao, Jason, 2023. "Exploring spatial heterogeneity in the high-speed rail impact on air quality," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    6. Haonan Chen & Tianqi Zhu & Lijuan Zhao, 2024. "High-Speed Railway Opening, Industrial Symbiotic Agglomeration and Green Sustainable Development—Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-20, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jin, Wenwan & Zhu, Shengjun, 2023. "High-speed rail network and regional convergence/divergence in industrial structure," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PA).
    2. Mohsen Momenitabar & Raj Bridgelall & Zhila Dehdari Ebrahimi & Mohammad Arani, 2021. "Literature Review of Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts of High-Speed Rail in the World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-27, November.
    3. Wang, Yongpei & Guan, Zhongyu & Zhang, Qian, 2023. "Railway opening and carbon emissions in distressed areas: Evidence from China's state-level poverty-stricken counties," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 55-67.
    4. Li, Xiang & Cheng, Zhonghua, 2022. "Does high-speed rail improve urban carbon emission efficiency in China?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. Lan, Xiujuan & Hu, Zheneng & Wen, Chuanhao, 2023. "Does the opening of high-speed rail enhance urban entrepreneurial activity? Evidence from China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    6. Ziyang Chen & Xiao Feng & Ziwen He, 2022. "A Key to Stimulate Green Technology Innovation in China: The Expansion of High-Speed Railways," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-21, December.
    7. Tian, Meng & Wang, Yiwei & Wang, Yiran, 2023. "High-speed rail network and urban agglomeration economies: Research from the perspective of urban network externalities," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    8. Jinxing Hu & Guojie Ma & Chaohai Shen & Xiaolan Zhou, 2022. "Impact of Urbanization through High-Speed Rail on Regional Development with the Interaction of Socioeconomic Factors: A View of Regional Industrial Structure," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-21, October.
    9. Wang, Ke-Liang & Jiang, Wei & Miao, Zhuang, 2023. "Impact of high-speed railway on urban resilience in China: Does urban innovation matter?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PB).
    10. Yang, Xiaolan & Wang, Rui & Guo, Dongmei & Sun, Weizeng, 2020. "The reconfiguration effect of China's high-speed railway on intercity connection ——A study based on media attention index," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 47-56.
    11. Na Li & Haiyan Lu & Yongxin Lv, 2022. "High-Speed Railway Facilities, Intercity Accessibility and Urban Innovation Level—Evidence from Cities in Three Chinese Megacity Regions," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-16, July.
    12. Guo, Qingbin & Zhong, Jinrong, 2022. "The effect of urban innovation performance of smart city construction policies: Evaluate by using a multiple period difference-in-differences model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    13. Kang, Meiling & Li, Yucheng & Zhao, Zhongkuang & Song, Min & Yi, Jun, 2023. "Travel costs and inter-city collaborative innovation: Evidence of high-speed railway in China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 286-302.
    14. Jin, Mengjie & Shi, Wenming & Liu, Yu & Xu, Xiaoling & Li, Kevin X., 2022. "Heterogeneous impact of high speed railway on income distribution: A case study in China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    15. Jiao, Jingjuan & Zhao, Hongyu & Lyu, Guowei, 2024. "How does high-speed rail affect off-site investments? Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    16. Zhou, Zhengyi & Zhang, Anming, 2021. "High-speed rail and industrial developments: Evidence from house prices and city-level GDP in China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 98-113.
    17. Ren, Xiaohang & Zeng, Gudian & Dong, Kangyin & Wang, Kun, 2023. "How does high-speed rail affect tourism development? The case of the Sichuan-Chongqing Economic Circle," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    18. Wu, Xiaokang & Yang, Jijun, 2023. "High-speed railway and patent trade in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    19. Yu, Lamont Bo & Tran, Trang My & Lee, Wang-Sheng, 2023. "Bridging the gap: Assessing the effects of railway infrastructure investments in Northwest China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    20. Mohsen Momenitabar & Zhila Dehdari Ebrahimi & Mohammad Arani, 2020. "A Systematic and Analytical Review of the Socioeconomic and Environmental Impact of the Deployed High-Speed Rail (HSR) Systems on the World," Papers 2003.04452, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2020.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:82:y:2022:i:pb:s0038012122000532. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/seps .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.