The Influence Of High-speed Railway Of The Economic Development Of The Border Area Between Hunan,Hubei,Chongqing And Guizhou Provinces

Over the past decade and more,China has built the world’s largest high-speed rail network at an accelerating pace.By 2019,the total length of China’s high-speed railway has reached 35,000 kilometers.The coverage of China’s high-speed railway network extends from developed regions to less-developed regions,which is profoundly changing the economic development conditions and prospects of various regions.High-speed railway is a new factor affecting the economic development of less-developed regions that have access to high-speed railway network.However,compared with developed regions,the research on the impact of high-speed railway on the economic development of less-developed regions is still weak.In this paper,the border area between Hunan,Hubei,Chongqing and Guizhou is representative of the less-developed areas in the high-speed railway network.On the one hand,this area is located in the Wuling mountain contiguous extremely poor area,the overall level of economic development is relatively low,the task of poverty alleviation is arduous.On the other hand,the region is geographically andeconomically marginal,not only far from the economic center,but also interlinked by inter-provincial administrative divisions.So far,there are few studies on the impact of high-speed railway on the economic development of the border area between Hunan,Hubei,Chongqing and Guizhou provinces.Therefore,this paper studies the impact of high-speed railway on the economic development of the region,which can not only make up for the deficiency in this aspect,but also provide scientific basis for the region to seize the opportunity of high-speed railway to promote economic development,and also enrich the theoretical discussion on the impact of high-speed railway on the economic development of less-developed regions.According to the existing research literature,this paper sorts out five effects of high-speed railway on regional economic development,which are space-time compression effect,spatial spillover effect,siphon effect,corridor effect and structural change effect.Based on the analysis of the current situation of economic development in the border area of Hunan,Hubei,Chongqing and Guizhou province and the restricting effect of traffic on its economic development,this paper focuses on the regional economic development from three aspects: economic growth,industrial structure optimization and urbanization rate.Taking the towns with high-speed railway in the border area of Hunan,Hubei,Chongqing and Guizhou province from 2010 to 2017 as the experimental samples,the towns with high-speed railway in the border area after2014 as the experimental group,and the towns without high-speed railway asthe control group,the influence of high-speed railway on the economic development of the border area of Hunan,Hubei,Chongqing and Guizhou province was analyzed by using the double difference method(DID)and multi-phase double difference method(DID).The results of DID analysis based on single railway show that the impact of high-speed railway on the economic growth,urbanization and industrial structure upgrading of the region is positive but not significant.However,with the increase of the number of analysis samples,the introduction of control variables,the effect of high-speed railway is gradually significant.The results of the multi-phase DID analysis based on multiple railways show that the impact of high-speed railway on the regional economic growth and urbanization is significantly positive,while the impact of high-speed railway on the upgrading of regional industrial structure is positive but not significant.Time window change test and counterfact test show that the above empirical test results are relatively robust and accurate.In this paper,Enshi prefecture in the border region of Hunan,Hubei,Chongqing and Guizhou is used as the object to analyze the reasons for the economic development promoted by high-speed railway.The results show that the high-speed railway has significantly improved the market accessibility of the region,unlocked its resource potential,promoted its industrial transfer,and enhanced its cooperation with other regions,thus accelerating its economic development.Based on the results of the above empirical analysis,this paper puts forward some Suggestions to speed up the economic development of the border area betweenHunan,Hubei,Chongqing and Guizhou provinces by taking advantage of the opportunity of high-speed railway.That is,to promote the construction of high-speed rail,optimize the layout of the transportation network;Develop characteristic industry,guide industry to gather;Accelerate the pace of urbanization and build a growth center system;Optimize the business environment to reduce siphon effect;We will strengthen regional development planning and increase policy support.In view of the representation of Hunan,Hubei,Chongqing and Guizhou provinces in less developed areas,the research of this paper is a valuable supplement to the regional types of high-speed railway affecting economic development.At the same time,it plays a positive role in verifying the mechanism of high-speed railway affecting regional economic development.In addition,the lack of data is a problem that restricts the research on the impact of high-speed railway on the economic development of less developed areas.The single-line DID analysis,multi-line multi-phase DID analysis,case analysis and other methods adopted in this paper overcome this difficulty to some extent,which can provide a methodological reference for the research on high-speed railway’s economic development in less developed regions.