Did high-speed railway cause urban space expansion? -Empirical evidence from China's prefecture-level cities

Based on a panel dataset with 247 prefecture-level cities from 2006 to 2015 in China, this paper uses a multi-stage difference-in-differences (DID) model to examine the impact of high-speed railway (HSR) opening and frequency on urban space expansion. Moreover, the heterogeneous effects of HSR were explored in terms of the location conditions of the city and HSR station. The main conclusions are shown as follows: (1) The multi-stage DID results reveal that the opening of HSR has significantly promoted the expansion of urban space. (2) Besides the direct connection by HSR, the daily frequency of HSR trains also plays a key role in affecting urban space expansion. (3) The effects of HSR on urban space expansion are different depending on the location conditions of the city and HSR station. First, the cities with a suburban HSR station are likely to experience greater urban expansion than other HSR-connected cities. Second, due to the higher-level economic openness and base, the cities located in the eastern China are more likely to be affected by HSR in terms of urban space expansion. Finally, the advantage in agglomeration environments makes the cities within an urban agglomeration more susceptible to HSR connection.