Does High-speed Railway Make The Land Market In Small Cities Worse?

The impact of high-speed rail on the economic benefits and land market of small and medium-sized cities has not yet been determined: supporters of the "diffusion effect" believe that the opening of the high-speed rail will bring opportunities to small cities along the line,but supporters of the "siphon effect" believe that the opening of the high-speed rail will lead to recession,which has been made worse by the outflow of population and industry.This paper colleted data from 163,221 land transactions all over the country from January 2015 to July 2017,combined with the data of the opened high-speed rail station,to further divide city types on the basis of the impact of highspeed rail station establishment on the land market of small and medium cities.The study found that:(1)The high-speed rail station can significantly increase the county’s land transfer price,and increase the county’s commercial,residential,and industrial land transfer prices at the same time;(2)The high-speed railway can significantly increase the land price of counties under the jurisdiction of small and medium-sized cities;(3)High-speed rail stations can promote the flow of economic activities in small and medium-sized cities to high-speed rail counties,but there is no change in the land price agglomeration in counties under the jurisdiction of high-level cities.The results of the study suggest that the establishment of high-speed rail stations will promote the development of small cities,and this conclusion is still robust when changing the classification of city according to the characteristics of the agglomeration of inter-city economy.We believes that the construction of high-speed rail has led to the proliferation of industrial enterprises to small cities along the high-speed rail,and promoted the development of tourism,driving the local land market to prosper.The contribution of this article is to provide empirical evidence for the debate on the impact of high-speed rail on the economics of small and medium-sized cities.The research results are of great practical significance for the rational layout of high-speed railway lines and the improvement of local government supporting land policies.