Regional economic impacts of China's high-speed rail development and its institutional challenges

• Main Author: ZHAO, Hankun
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: Chinese HSR; regional development; GIUR system; innovation; Asian Studies; Business Administration, Management, and Operations; Economics
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/341; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1329&context=etd_coll
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This article studies the impact of connecting to high-speed rail (HSR) network on regional development and the replication and sustainability of China’s GIUR system, aiming to summarize the experience of China’s HSR, which can provide several policy references for developing countries. This article conducts two research: (1) explore the impact of connecting to HSR network on the urban industrial structure, urban creativity and urban-rural income gap of cities in different regions and cities with heterogeneous locations along the HSR lines in the long and short term; (2) explore the advantages and disadvantages of the Government-Industry-University-Research (GIUR) system in the process of introducing, absorbing and innovating technologies of HSR, as well as its adjustment in the technology-pioneering stage. For the first research, HSR and urban development, I conduct the empirical research and descriptive statistics based on urban development theory, and the results indicate following conclusions. Firstly, connecting to HSR network can significantly increase the proportion of tertiary industry in eastern cities of China. Secondly, it can promote the creativity of urban primary and tertiary industries, and more developed cities and non-eastern cities benefit more. In addition, it has also significantly improved the creativity of the tertiary industry in major hub cities, the better accessibility (with more HSR lines passing through) major hub cities possess, the more improvement in creativity of tertiary industry they can benefit compared to those minor node or non-node cities. Thirdly, connecting to the HSR network will only widen the urban-rural income gap in economically underdeveloped regions, and this expansion effect is more significant in economically underdeveloped minor node cities. For the second study, combining the existing research and case study, I find that in the early stage of technological development in which international advanced technology can be brought in, the government-dominated GIUR system is more conducive to promoting HSR technology accumulation and development. But in the technological pioneering stage, the system needs to transform into a market-oriented Industry-University-Research system. In addition, based on above research, I argue that the government GIUR system has a good sustainability for promoting scientific research innovation but has a high threshold when applied to other industry. This study increases people’s awareness for reformation system of China’s HSR research and development (R&D) and helps to propel the rapid development of similar emerging industries. Finally, I discuss the policy implications.