高铁开通带来技术扩散了吗?——来自中国专利的证据

Does Opening of High-Speed Railway Promote Technology Diffusion?—Evidence from Patent Data in China

本文考察了高速铁路开通对区域间技术扩散的影响,并探讨了影响机制。我们匹配了2010-2015年全国铁路旅客列车时刻表和地级市层面的专利引用数据,并利用专利数据构造了地区间的技术相似度。结合双重差分法,本文发现高铁开通显著地促进了地区间的技术扩散,并带来了区域间技术相似度的提高。基于专利引用数据的机制分析进一步发现,高铁开通带来了区域间的知识外溢,即两地间专利引用量增加,从而提高了地区间的技术相似度。异质性分析表明,经济发展水平相对落后地区的外溢效应更加明显。

This paper explores the effect of high-speed railway opening on inter-regional technology diffusion,and further discusses the mechanism.We match the National Railway Timetable and patent data at prefecture level from 2010 to 2015 and then construct the inter-regional technological proximity based on patent data.Using a difference-in-differences approach,we find that the opening of high-speed railway promotes the inter-regional technology diffusion significantly.With the patent citation data,the mechanism analysis indicates that the opening of high-speed railway enhances inter-regional knowledge diffusion,thus increasing the inter-regional technological proximity.Heterogeneity analysis shows that such spillover ef fect is larger in less-developed regions.