Trade facilitation and industrial structure upgrading of cities along the route——Quasi-natural experiment based on China Railway Express
The international freight nature of China Railway Express makes its impact on China's trade facilitation and technological innovation different from that of general domestic railways.Based on the data of prefecture-level cities in China from 2004 to 2021,this paper regards the opening of China-Europe train as a"quasi-natural experiment",and uses the multi-period difference-in-difference method to explore the impact of trade facilita-tion on the industrial structure upgrading of cities along the route.The results show that:Firstly,the opening of China Railway Express can promote the industrial structure of cities along the route to an advanced direction,and the results are still significant after three robustness tests.Secondly,the three mechanisms of technological innova-tion,financing support and digital intelligence can have a significant positive impact on the upgrading of the in-dustrial structure of the opening cities.Thirdly,the role of China Railway Express in promoting the upgrading of industrial structure in cities along the route mainly exists in non-central cities.In the future,cities should take advantage of the powerful"engine"of trade facilitation,give full play to the role of transportation infrastructure in promoting the flow of innovative factors by improving the level of financing convenience and digital intelligence,and provide support for the industrial structure adjustment of cities along the route.
万方数据
