Will the construction of high-speed rail accelerate urban land expansion? Evidences from Chinese cities

While the existing literature has investigated the influence of high-speed rail (HSR) on urban economic outcomes, relatively little is known about the influence of HSR on urban land expansion mainly due to the lack of long-term and high-resolution urban land use data. Taking an example of Chinese cities which have made tremendous progress in the construction of HSR during the last decade, this study empirically documents the impact of HSR on urban land growth of Chinese cities by using a panel dataset containing annual 30-m resolution impervious surface data and socioeconomic variables from 2003 to 2015. The influence of HSR on urban land use is estimated by combining the approaches of propensity score matching and difference-in-difference analysis. Our empirical findings indicate that HSR has a significant and positive influence on urban land expansion, suggesting that cities are expected to experience faster urban land growth after the construction of HSR. In addition, HSR facilitates faster urban land expansion for cities in central and western China than those in eastern China, and faster urban land expansion for cities with lower development levels than those with higher development levels. Policymakers may need to consider the heterogeneous impacts of HSR on urban land expansion when introducing HSR to promote urban land development.