The Effect of High-Speed Rail on Regional Economy in China Using AHP

Abstract

The opening of the high-speed rail is a technological revolution in the transportation industry, which reflects the comprehensive strength of the country to some extent. It generated a lot of researches on high-speed rail in transportation, tourism, economy, etc. However, there are few studies on the impact of high-speed rail on regional economic development by the analytic hierarchy process. On the basis of reading and collating related literature, the paper put forward the quantitative and qualitative methods in effect of high-speed rail (HSR) on regional economic development. According to the theory of Regional Economy development and the practical condition of high-speed rail in China, this paper provides a new evaluation index system including 2 layers (direct and indirect effects), and establishing 6 indexes for the effect of high-speed rail on regional economy in China. The weights of factors in index system are gave by using Analytic Hierarchy Process. The main conclusion from the paper is that high-speed rail a direct impact on the regional economy is greater than indirect And the following of the ranking result of the indicator regional: passenger traffic>node accessibility > regional investment benefit> tourism development> regional industrial structure> urbanization levels. This is not only a great significance to the development regional economy of China, but also applicable to other districts for the development of local economies by HSR.