Research On The Impact Of The Opening Of High-speed Rail On Labor Allocation In Small And Medium-sized Cities In China

High-speed railway has been effecting the way people live and the way labor resource is allocated since it opened.In small and middle-sized cities,it could be a rapier for labor allocation.To figure out the way the opening of high-speed railway works on labor allocation in small cities and medium-sized cities,the data on the opening of high-speed railways in small and medium-sized cities in China from 2006 to 2019 is used in this study.The Differences-in-Differences model is used and the opening of high-speed railways is treated as a quasi-natural experiment.A parallel trend test is conducted for the application of double difference model.Both quantity and quality of labor force allocation is considered.A mechanism test is conducted to study the mechanism of the impact.Labor mobility and industrial agglomeration are used as channel variables.To make sure that the empirical results are convincing,robustness tests are conducted by considering lagged effects,propensity score matching method and placebo analysis.Considering the possible endogeneity of the study,this study uses the instrumental variable method for the empirical analysis.Considering the possible heterogeneity of the impact of high-speed rail opening on labor allocation in small and medium-sized cities,the heterogeneity is tested by three latitudes: region,city size,and economic development level.Based on the empirical study,it is concluded that the opening of high-speed railways will have a significant negative impact on labor allocation in small and medium-sized cities.For the aspect of the quantity of labor allocation,the opening of high-speed railroads will have a significant negative impact on the quantity of labor in primary,secondary and tertiary industries in small and medium-sized cities.For the aspect of quality of labor allocation,the opening of high-speed railroads will have a significant negative impact on the quality of labor in small and medium-sized cities.Through mechanism testing,it is found that the opening of high-speed railways will have a significant positive impact on labor mobility and industrial concentration in small and medium-sized cities.And the impact on channel variables will lead to the impact on labor allocation.Using the instrumental variable method,it is found that the conclusion of this study remains credible when the endogeneity issue is considered.The results of the heterogeneity test at regional,city size and economic development level latitudes brings on the conclusion that the impact of the opening of high-speed railroad on labor allocation could be different when the region,city size or economic development level change.Combining the results of the empirical study with the real development situation,this study concludes that in order to fully utilize the development opportunities brought by the opening of high-speed railroads,the governments of small and medium-sized cities should adequately plan the subsequent industrial development before the opening of high-speed railways.And they should adequately prepare the infrastructure construction which is in need for the development of related industries.Only if they efficiently realize the scientific supervision of the introduced enterprises,can they amplify the positive effects that may be brought by industrial agglomeration which is caused by the opening of high-speed railroads.At the same time,in order to prevent the negative impact of the opening of high-speed railroads on the labor allocation of small and medium-sized cities,the introduction of talents and the training of local talents should be put more efforts in.And the budget of financial investment in the introduction of talents,scientific research and education should be increased.Moreover,in order to alleviate the current problem of unbalanced labor allocation among regions in China,we should focus on accelerating the construction process of high-speed railroads in the western region of China and give more support the to the western region.Last but not least,the national high-speed railroad network development and construction should be accelerated.The investment in scientific research for high-speed railroad construction-related technology should be increased,and the coverage of high-speed railroad network in the country should be improved as soon as possible.