交通基础设施建设是否具有减排效应——来自中国高铁开通的证据

Does Transportation Infrastructure Construction Have Emission Reduction Effect——Evidence from the Opening of High-Speed Rail in China

以是否开通高铁这一"准自然实验"为契机,采用中国2004—2016年285个地级及以上城市的数据,构建双重差分模型来实证考察高铁开通对工业污染排放强度的影响。研究发现:高铁开通的收入效应和集聚效应总体上有利于降低工业污染排放强度;高铁开通的污染减排效应存在区域异质性,中西部地区和泛珠三角地区的污染减排效应更为显著。之后,稳健性检验和内生性问题处理结果均支持高铁开通与工业污染排放强度降低之间存在因果关系的结论。对作用机制的进一步检验结果显示,高铁的收入效应和集聚效应在实现单位产出污染减排上的积极作用有赖于高铁网络下发生的要素结构优化。

Taking the opening of high-speed rail as a"quasi-natural experiment",this paper applied the data of 285 prefecturallevel and above cities in China during 2004-2016 and the difference-in-difference model to study the impact of high-speed rail opening on the intensity of industrial pollution emission.The study found that,the income effect and agglomeration effect caused by the opening of high-speed rail were generally beneficial to reducing the intensity of industrial pollution emissions.And the pollution reduction effect of high-speed rail opening had regional heterogeneity,which was more evident in central and western regions,as well as the Pan-Pearl River Delta.Moreover,a series of robustness tests and treatments of endogenous issues also supported above conclusions.Further analysis on the influencing mechanism showed that,the positive impact of the income effect and agglomeration effect relied on the optimization of the factor structure in high-speed rail network.