School of Business, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
Centre for China Public Sector Economy Research and Economics School, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
PLoS One. 2022 Mar 4;17(3):e0264779. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264779. eCollection 2022.
Innovation is intrinsically dependent on the construction of local infrastructure. Using panel data on 285 cities in China, we empirically examined the impact of high-speed rails on urban innovation and the mechanism underlying this effect. We found that high-speed rails significantly increase urban innovation. In our analysis, high-speed rails were found to increase the agglomeration of innovation factors, including population and investment, which in turn increase urban technological innovation. The agglomeration of investment factors brought about by high-speed rails is the main source of the improvement in urban innovation. Through the use of a spatial panel model, we found that high-speed rails promote knowledge dissemination and technology spillovers among the cities along high-speed railways, thus improving their innovation levels. However, the existing effects of high-speed rails on innovation exhibit spatial heterogeneity. We confirmed the effect of high-speed rails on innovation and explored the mechanism underlying this effect by considering the effects of factor agglomeration and knowledge spillovers. Our conclusions can be used as a resource by policymakers to stimulate knowledge and technology diffusion, which in turn cultivates and stimulates urban innovation.
创新本质上依赖于当地基础设施的建设。本文利用中国 285 个城市的面板数据，实证检验了高铁对城市创新的影响及其作用机制。研究发现，高铁显著促进了城市创新。在分析中，高铁增加了创新要素的集聚，包括人口和投资，进而提高了城市技术创新水平。高铁带来的投资要素集聚是提升城市创新的主要来源。通过使用空间面板模型，我们发现高铁促进了高铁沿线城市之间的知识传播和技术溢出，从而提高了它们的创新水平。然而，高铁对创新的现有影响表现出空间异质性。我们通过考虑要素集聚和知识溢出的影响，验证了高铁对创新的影响，并探讨了其作用机制。我们的结论可以为政策制定者提供资源，以刺激知识和技术的扩散，从而培育和激发城市创新。
