High-speed Railway and City Industrial Upgrading in China: A Quasi-experimental Study

Yibo Qiao () and Gran Sasso Science Institute Ascani ()
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Yibo Qiao: Nanjing University
Gran Sasso Science Institute Ascani: Gran Sasso Science Institute

No 2024-14, Discussion Paper series in Regional Science & Economic Geography from Gran Sasso Science Institute, Social Sciences

Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of High-speed Railway (HSR) on city industrial upgrading. Using the Annual Survey of Industrial Firms (1998-2015) and HSR opening information in China, we conduct a difference-in-differences-in-differences (DDD) analysis on 300 prefecture- and higher-level cities and 389 4-digit manufacturing industries. We find that HSR enables cities to enter more complex industries, and this result is robust under parallel trend test, placebo test, instrumental variable estimation, and other specifications. We contribute to Evolutionary Economic Geography by considering HSR as a regional external linkage and by integrating the causal analysis in the study of regional diversification.

Keywords: High-speed railway; industrial upgrading; complexity; regional diversification; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H54 O18 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2024-11, Revised 2024-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-geo, nep-tid, nep-tre and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ahy:wpaper:wp58

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