 Does high-speed rail stimulate innovation: City- and firm-level evidence from ChinaZhengyi Zhou and Anming Zhang Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2026, vol. 205, issue C Abstract: This paper studies the effect of transportation infrastructure on innovation. Leveraging China’s development of high-speed rail (HSR) network, we adopt an instrumental variable approach and find that HSR increases city-level innovation. This is driven by big firms, whose R&D investment, patent ownership likelihood, and total patent citations increase after HSR’s opening in their headquarters cities. To demonstrate the underlying mechanisms, we develop an oligopolistic competition model wherein a dominant big firm can drive technology progress and market demand through R&D investments, while a small firm free-rides. HSR exposes the big firm to greater competition pressure while simultaneously improving its R&D efficiency. This encourages the big firm to boost demand through innovation. The model’s predictions are empirically supported. Keywords: High-speed rail; Patent; R&D; Competition (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:transa:v:205:y:2026:i:c:s0965856426000029 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2026.104861 Access Statistics for this article Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice is currently edited by John (J.M.) Rose More articles in Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice from Elsevier |
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