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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA

Postaroff, Sandra LU (2019) NEKN03 20191
Department of Economics
Abstract
The regional disparities in China are increasing, at the same time as the growth moderates. In order to keep successful development in the future, China is rapidly developing the rail infrastructure, as one of the main channels to obtain a balanced regional development. The argument is that regional inequalities will decrease through increased economic interconnection and mobility provided by the rail system. This study aims to investigate how regional development, measured by levels of education, healthcare, employment and environmental pollutants, is affected by the level of rail infrastructure, measured by train travel intensity. A panel dataset of 31 provinces in China during the years 2008-2017 is empirically tested using... (More)
The regional disparities in China are increasing, at the same time as the growth moderates. In order to keep successful development in the future, China is rapidly developing the rail infrastructure, as one of the main channels to obtain a balanced regional development. The argument is that regional inequalities will decrease through increased economic interconnection and mobility provided by the rail system. This study aims to investigate how regional development, measured by levels of education, healthcare, employment and environmental pollutants, is affected by the level of rail infrastructure, measured by train travel intensity. A panel dataset of 31 provinces in China during the years 2008-2017 is empirically tested using fixed-effects method and a multivariate approach. The test results indicate that a higher level of rail infrastructure is positively correlated with employment rates, but negatively correlated with population share in higher education. No statistically significant effect was found on level of healthcare or environment. The overall results indicate that the relationship between rail infrastructure and regional development is contradictory. The study concludes that the selection of measurements representing regional development determines the observed correlation with rail infrastructure. (Less)
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author
Postaroff, Sandra LU
supervisor
organization
course
NEKN03 20191
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Rail infrastructure, Regional development, Panel data, Multivariate approach, China
language
English
id
8990058
date added to LUP
2019-08-08 10:27:37
date last changed
2019-08-08 10:27:37
@misc{8990058,
  abstract     = {{The regional disparities in China are increasing, at the same time as the growth moderates. In order to keep successful development in the future, China is rapidly developing the rail infrastructure, as one of the main channels to obtain a balanced regional development. The argument is that regional inequalities will decrease through increased economic interconnection and mobility provided by the rail system. This study aims to investigate how regional development, measured by levels of education, healthcare, employment and environmental pollutants, is affected by the level of rail infrastructure, measured by train travel intensity. A panel dataset of 31 provinces in China during the years 2008-2017 is empirically tested using fixed-effects method and a multivariate approach. The test results indicate that a higher level of rail infrastructure is positively correlated with employment rates, but negatively correlated with population share in higher education. No statistically significant effect was found on level of healthcare or environment. The overall results indicate that the relationship between rail infrastructure and regional development is contradictory. The study concludes that the selection of measurements representing regional development determines the observed correlation with rail infrastructure.}},
  author       = {{Postaroff, Sandra}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}