Speaker: Sun Weizeng (Central University of Finance and Economics)
Commentators: Liu Xiuyan, Gao Yanyan (Southeast University)
Time: 10:00am-11:30am, Beijing Time
Date: May 26th, 2022 (Thursday)
Tencent Meeting ID: 506-180-438
Abstract:
The development of high-speed rail has witnessed the rapid economic growth of China in the past two decades and has received wide attention from the international community and academia. In the context of accelerating the construction of a large national unified market in the new era, this paper focuses on the impact of high-speed rail as a regional transportation infrastructure on the cross-city commuting behavior of the labor force. Based on a spatial general equilibrium model of cross-city commuting (Monte et al., 2018), this paper quantifies the social welfare brought by high-speed rail in China using Chinese population sample survey data, regional input-output tables, and an Internet company's off-site commuting data, and examines the impact of high-speed rail networks on social welfare and inter-city income disparity through counterfactual analysis. The study finds that, first, high-speed rail has led to a 1.3% increase in society-wide welfare by facilitating cross-city commuting, generating economic benefits of RMB 1.2 trillion in the year 2018, with a 33% return on investment. Second, the benefits of high-speed rail in the eastern and central regions are significant. The high-speed rail not only reduces the cost of cross-city commuting for the labor force in cities along the route, but also brings considerable network spillover benefits. Third, regional employment centers and transportation hub cities, such as Beijing, Tianjin, Wuhan, and Hangzhou, contribute significantly to the benefits of the overall high-speed rail network, with more than half of the cities contributing more than RMB 10 billion in average annual economic contributions. Fourth, the benefits brought by China's high-speed rail network through cross-city commuting have exceeded the construction scale corresponding to the net benefit maximum, but the comprehensive benefits have not yet reached the inflection point. Finally, high-speed rail not only raises the average income of all people by promoting cross-city commuting, but also significantly reduces the income gap between city residents. This study provides a useful addition to the comprehensive understanding of the importance of high-speed rail networks in building regional integration, promoting common prosperity, and accelerating the construction of a large national unified market, and also has important implications for the future improvement and development of China's high-speed rail networks.
Sun Weizeng is the associate professor and master supervisor in the School of Economics of Central University of Finance and Economics, the member of China Real Estate Young Scholars 30 Forum, and the special researcher of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Research Center of Shanghai Jiaotong University. His research areas include urban economics, regional economics, and real estate economics. He has published more than 60 papers in PNAS, Journal of Urban Economics, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Journal of Regional Science, Chinese Social Sciences, Economic Research, Management World, Quarterly Journal of Economics and other well-known journals at home and abroad. He is in charge of the National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Science Fund project, Beijing Social Science Foundation Key Project, "Urban Cool Thinker" Team Young Scholar Grant Program, Central University of Finance and Economics Young Research Innovation Team Project, Central University of Finance and Economics Landmark Scientific Research Achievement Cultivation Project. He was selected for the National Young Talent Program and received academic honors and awards such as the 5th Hong Yinxing Economics Award (Youth), the Yongjin Faculty Academic Award of Central University of Finance and Economics, the Best Paper Award at the Annual Meeting of the World Chinese Real Estate Society, and the Best Paper Award at the Annual Meeting of the Asian Real Estate Society.
翻译：罗娇英
审校：甘若玮
