High-Speed Railway Network Development, Inter-County Accessibility Improvements, and Regional Poverty Alleviation: Evidence from China

The rapid expansion of the high-speed railway (HSR) network in China has significantly shortened the space-time distance between cities. China is striving to enter an anti-poverty era, which is increasing the importance of research on the poverty reduction effect created by upgrading transportation infrastructure, in particular, HSR development. Describing the characteristics of accessibility and the mechanisms by which that accessibility reduces poverty could provide the insights needed for determining suitable anti-poverty paths. By using data for 2341 counties and equivalents in China during 2007-2018, this study analyses the railway accessibility improvements and the poverty reduction effect created by HSR development. On average, HSR in China contributed to a significant increase in potential economic accessibility (317.8%) and a decrease in weighted average travel time (39.9%) for counties. Based on accessibility calculations, the Theil index was used to measure the disparity level of regional accessibility and regional poverty measured based on the income of rural residents. The results indicate that HSR leads to an increase in inequality in terms of travel time and potential economic accessibility at a national level. Pearson coefficients reveal a strong correlation between disparities in accessibility and in rural income among provinces. Furthermore, using the full sample, and sub-samples of poor and non-poor counties in China, the association between regional accessibility and poverty was examined by using two-way fixed effect models and spatial econometric models. The estimated results show that a 1% improvement in potential economic accessibility leads to an aggregate rural income improvement of 0.03-0.17%; the ratio of rural income to urban income increases by 0.04-0.12% and a larger effect is observed in poor counties. The weighted average travel time reduction also leads to improvement in rural income and reduction in the urban-rural income gap. The empirical results obtained by different robust test methods, including different sample groups, different estimated methods and accessibility indicators, are shown to be robust. These findings can help transportation departments formulate poverty-alleviation-oriented transportation planning and investment policies and inform future policies for countries planning to construct HSRs.