How Do High-Speed Railways Spur Innovation?

How does transport infrastructure spur innovation? This article examines the knowledge spillover effects of the construction of high-speed railways (HSR) in China. Using a database listing patent application information and Chinese city samples over the period 2005-2015, we find that the connection...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE transactions on engineering management Vol. 70; no. 11; pp. 3944 - 3957
Main Authors Sun, Daxin, Zeng, Saixing, Ma, Hanyang, Shi, Jonathan J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York IEEE 01.11.2023
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects
China
economic geography
Economics
High speed rail
high-speed railways (HSR)
Infrastructure
innovation
Innovations
Patent applications
Productivity
Rail transportation
Spillover effect
Technological innovation
Transportation
Transportation planning
Urban areas
China
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Summary:How does transport infrastructure spur innovation? This article examines the knowledge spillover effects of the construction of high-speed railways (HSR) in China. Using a database listing patent application information and Chinese city samples over the period 2005-2015, we find that the connection to HSR networks significantly increases the number of patents at the city level. Moreover, our results show that more collaborative or radical innovations and those operating in technologically complex industries benefit more from HSR. Our findings extend prior work on transport infrastructure and the literature on the geography of innovation and provide a comprehensive understanding of how various innovation outcomes benefit in different ways from reduced travel costs.
ISSN:0018-9391
1558-0040
DOI:10.1109/TEM.2021.3091727