The national new urbanization plan (2014-2020) points out a prominent problem in the process of rapid urbanization in China, that is, " land urbanization is faster than population urbanization, which makes extensive use of land resources and wastes a lot of cultivated land resources”. The large-scale construction of China’s high speed railway (HSR) has simultaneously promoted urban population flow and land use development, which to a certain extent affects the pace of China’s urban population urbanization and land urbanization. However, currently there is a lack of coordination in the population-land urbanization of Chinese cities. The speed of land urbanization in China obviously exceeds the spatial demand of population urbanization, leading to urban sprawl. In this paper, the causal effect of China’s HSR construction and urban sprawl is empirically tested by using the Difference-in-Differences method (DID) with the panel data of China’s prefecture-level cities from 2007 to 2015. The research results show that: (1) the opening of China’s HSR has strongly aggravated urban sprawl, and the construction of HSR has become an important factor inducing urban sprawl in China; (2) through the impact analysis of the opening of HSR in different years on urban sprawl, it is found that with the continuous advancement of China’s HSR, urban sprawl caused by HSR opening is characterized by stages; (3) on the basis of the above research, this paper has classified cities according to different standards and finds that HSR has different impacts on different types of cities. While most scholars pay attention to the benefits of HSR, this paper uses the empirical model to confirm the possible negative effects of HSR construction on urban development. That is, the opening of HSR exacerbates urban sprawl to a certain extent. Therefore, while enjoying the benefits led by HSR opening, local cities should actively deal with the potential negative effects caused by HSR opening. When planning locations of HSR stations, the railway corporation and the local government should be in line with the city’s own development stage, so as to make urban layout more scientific and reasonable.
/ Journals / Journal of Finance and Economics
Journal of Finance and Economics
LiuYuanchun, Editor-in-Chief
ZhengChunrong, Vice Executive Editor-in-Chief
YaoLan BaoXiaohua HuangJun, Vice Editor-in-Chief
Has China’s High Speed Railway Construction Aggravated “Urban Sprawl”? An Empirical Evidence from Prefecture-Level Cities
Journal of Finance and Economics Vol. 44, Issue 10, pp. 125 - 137 (2018) DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.jfe.2018.10.009
Summary
References
Summary
[1] Deng T T, Wang D D, Cheng S Y. The impact of high speed railway on urban service industry agglomeration[J]. Journal of Finance and Economics, 2017, (7):119-132. (In Chinese)
[2] Dong Y M, Zhu Y M. Can high-speed rail construction reshape the layout of China's economic space——Based on the perspective of regional heterogeneity of employment, wage and economic growth[J]. China Industrial Economics, 2016, (10):92-108. (In Chinese)
[3] Jiang F, Liu S H, Yuan H. Measuring urban sprawl in Beijing with geo-spatial indices[J]. Acta Geographica Sinica, 2007, (6):649-658. (In Chinese)
[4] Liu H Y, Wang X. Urban sprawl and the services development: based on city panel data[J]. Finance and Trade Research, 2015, (3):1-11. (In Chinese)
[5] Liu X Y, Li S L, Qin M. Development lag, market uncertainty and urban sprawl[J]. Economic Research Journal, 2016, (8):159-171. (In Chinese)
[6] Qin M, Liu X Y. Does urban sprawl lead to urban productivity losses in China? Empirical study based on nighttime light data[J]. Journal of Finance and Economics, 2015, (7):28-40. (In Chinese)
[7] Qin M, Liu X Y, Li S L. China's "urban sprawl mystery" —— Spatial panel data analysis from the perspective of government behavior[J]. Economic Perspectives, 2016a, (7): 21-33. (In Chinese)
[8] Qin M, Liu X Y, Tong Y T. Does urban sprawl exacerbate haze pollution——An empirical study of fine particles (PM2.5) in Chinese cities[J]. Finance & Trade Economics, 2016b, (11):146-160. (In Chinese)
[9] Sun P J, Feng X P, Sun H, et al. Comparative analysis of characteristics, effects and driving factors of urban sprawl in Changchun-Jilin during 2000-2009[J]. Progress in Geography, 2013, (3):381-388. (In Chinese)
[10] Wang J T, Zhang D L, Sun Z. Has the private car consumption intensified urban sprawl? Evidence from the prefecture-level city[J]. Economic Review, 2015, (6):108-117. (In Chinese)
[11] Wang J T, Zhang J T. Measurement on the urban spreading in China: Empirical study based on the panel data of 35 large and middle cities[J]. Economist, 2010, (10): 56-63. (In Chinese)
[12] Wang J T, Xie Y. Does real estate price increase promote urban sprawl: panel data from 35 large and medium-sized cities in China[J]. Finance & Economics, 2016, (5):103-111. (In Chinese)
[13] Zhang K Z, Tao D J. Economic distribution effects of transport infrastructure——Evidence from the opening of high-speed rail[J]. Economic Perspectives, 2016, (6): 62-73. (In Chinese)
[14] Zhang L L, Yue W Z, Fan B L. Measuring urban sprawl in large Chinese cities: a case study of Hangzhou[J]. Scientia Geographica Sinica, 2014, (4): 394-400. (In Chinese)
[15] Zhang X L. Has transport infrastructure promoted regional economic growth? With an analysis of spatial spillover effects of transport infrastructure[J]. Social Sciences in China, 2012, (3):60-77. (In Chinese)
[16] Zhou L A, Chen Y. The policy effect of tax-and-fees reforms in rural China: a difference-in-differences estimation[J]. Economic Research Journal, 2005, (8):44-53. (In Chinese)
[17] Aschauer D A. Is public expenditure productive?[J]. Journal of Monetary Economics, 1989, 23(2): 177-200.
[18] Deng T T, Shao S, Yang L L, et al. Has the transport-led economic growth effect reached a peak in China? A panel threshold regression approach[J]. Transportation, 2014, 41(3):567-587.
[19] Fallah B, Partridge M, Olfert M R. Uncertain economic growth and sprawl: Evidence from a stochastic growth approach[J]. The Annals of Regional Science, 2012, 49(3): 589-617.
[20] Fujita M, Krugman P, Venables A J. The spatial economy: cities, regions, and international trade[M]. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999.
[21] Garmendia M, Romero V, Ureña J M D,et al. High-speed rail opportunities around metropolitan regions: Madrid and London[J]. Journal of Infrastructure Systems, 2012, 18(4): 305-313.
[22] Geng B, Bao H J, Liang Y. A study of the effect of a high-speed rail station on spatial variations in housing price based on the hedonic model[J]. Habitat International, 2015, 49:333-339.
[23] Guirao B, Campa J L, Casado-Sanz N. Labour mobility between cities and metropolitan integration: The role of high speed rail commuting in Spain[J]. Cities, 2018, 78: 140-154.
[24] Krugman P. Increasing returns and economic geography[J]. Journal of Political Economy, 1991, 99(3): 483-499.
[25] Krugman P, Venables A J. Globalization and the inequality of nations[J]. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1995, 110(4): 857-880.
[26] Li H C, Strauss J, Hu S X, et al. Do high-speed railways lead to urban economic growth in China? A panel data study of China’s cities[J]. The Quarterly Review of Economic and Fiance, 2018, 69(8): 70-89.
[27] Lin Y T. Travel costs and urban specialization patterns: Evidence from China’s high speed railway system[J]. Journal of Urban Economics, 2017, 98: 98-123.
[28] Lopez R, Hynes H P. Sprawl in the 1990s measurement, distribution, and trends[J]. Urban Affairs Review, 2003, 38(3):325-355.
[29] Qin Y. ‘No county left behind?’ The distributional impact of high-speed rail upgrades in China[J]. Journal of Economic Geography, 2017, 17(3):489-520.
[30] Sánchez-Mateos H S M, Givoni M. The accessibility impact of a new high-speed rail line in the UK–A preliminary analysis of winners and losers[J]. Journal of Transport Geography, 2012, 25:105-114.
[31] Sands B D. The development effects of high-speed rail stations and implications for California[J]. Built Environment, 1993, 19(3-4): 257-284.
[32] Sasaki K, Ohashi T, Ando A. High-speed rail transit impact on regional systems: Does the Shinkansen contribute to dispersion?[J]. The Annals of Regional Science, 1997, 31(1): 77-98.
[33] Shen Y, Silva J D A E, Martínez L M. Assessing high-speed Rail’s impacts on land cover change in large urban areas based on spatial mixed logit methods: A case study of Madrid Atocha railway station from 1990 to 2006[J]. Journal of Transport Geography, 2014, 41:184-196.
[34] Verma A, Sudhira H S, Rathi S, et al. Sustainable urbanization using high speed rail (HSR) in Karnataka,India[J]. Research in Transportation Economics, 2013, 38(1):67-77.
[35] Willigers J, Wee B V. High-speed rail and office location choices. A stated choice experiment for the Netherlands[J]. Journal of Transport Geography, 2011, 19(4):745-754.
Cite this article
Deng Taotao, Wang Dandan. Has China’s High Speed Railway Construction Aggravated “Urban Sprawl”? An Empirical Evidence from Prefecture-Level Cities[J]. Journal of Finance and Economics, 2018, 44(10): 125-137.
Export Citations as:
For
ISSUE COVER
RELATED ARTICLES