High-speed railroads and local agricultural development

Abstract

We estimate the impacts of China's extensive high-speed railroads (HSR) expansions using both county-level and household-level agricultural data. Our estimates indicate that HSR expansions: (i) facilitated the outflow of labor from agriculture and reduced cropland in connected rural areas, particularly in underdeveloped regions; (ii) increased agricultural total factor productivity (TFP), effectively offsetting the negative impacts on agricultural output from reduced inputs; (iii) significantly boosted local GDP and government revenue, providing financial support for agriculture and critical investments in agricultural infrastructure and rural roads; (iv) facilitated farmers' access to technical training and encouraged the entry of new agribusiness firms; and (v) increased farmers' revenues and profits, strengthening their economic incentives for production and collectively improving agricultural TFP.