Does China's high-speed rail operation promote inclusive green growth? A service-based network perspective

Abstract

The expansion of high-speed rail (HSR) network has made outstanding contributions to regional economic growth, while its impact on inclusive green growth (IGG), a crucial route for global sustainable development, remains under-explored. Prior research has overlooked spatial disparities in HSR service quality, potentially compromising result accuracy. Aiming to tackle the gap highlighted above by conducting data of 279 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2019, we integrate service quality metrics, including travel time and service frequency of each origin-destination city, construct a dynamic, directed, and weighted HSR network matrix, and establish a comprehensive centrality indicator for HSR network advantages based on complex network analysis method to investigate its effects on IGG. The results show that HSR network indeed promotes IGG, primarily achieved by expediting digital transformation, stimulating entrepreneurial activity, and driving green innovation. Moreover, the research reveals a more pronounced effect of HSR network on IGG in central cities, non-resource-based cities, and non-old industrial base cities. Furthermore, it demonstrates a significant threshold effect in promoting IGG via HSR network under the constraint of urban rail transit (URT) service capacity. This effect is characterized by a marginal incremental increase in the promotional impact of HSR network on IGG as the threshold zone of URT network density expands. The findings offer policy implications for enhancing IGG through the optimization of HSR service quality.