Working Paper: NBER ID: w24539
Authors: Xiaofang Dong; Siqi Zheng; Matthew E. Kahn
Abstract: High skilled workers gain from face to face interactions. If the skilled can move at higher speeds, then knowledge diffusion and idea spillovers are likely to reach greater distances. This paper uses the construction of China’s high speed rail (HSR) network as a natural experiment to test this claim. HSR connects major cities, that feature the nation’s best universities, to secondary cities. Since bullet trains reduce cross-city commute times, they reduce the cost of face-to-face interactions between skilled workers who work in different cities. Using a data base listing research paper publication and citations, we document a complementarity effect between knowledge production and the transportation network. Co-authors’ productivity rises and more new co-author pairs emerge when secondary cities are connected by bullet train to China’s major cities.
Keywords: Transportation; High-Speed Rail; Knowledge Diffusion; Academic Productivity; China
JEL Codes: O15; O31; R42
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| HSR connectivity (L92) | academic productivity (D29) |
| higher travel speeds (R48) | matching and idea flows (C78) |
| existing coauthor pairs interacting more frequently (O36) | academic productivity (D29) |
| new coauthor pairs forming (O36) | academic productivity (D29) |
| HSR connectivity (L92) | new collaborations formed (O36) |
| HSR connectivity (L92) | existing collaborations become more productive (O36) |
| HSR connectivity (L92) | academic productivity (larger for social scientists) (D29) |