AUTHOR=Xing-lei Guo , Qian Zhang , Zhen-lei Yin , Zhong-hui Li , Chang-zheng Shao 

TITLE=Research on the impact of China’s urban rail transit on economic growth: Based on PSM-DID model

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Environmental Science

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-science/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1082567

DOI=10.3389/fenvs.2023.1082567

ISSN=2296-665X

ABSTRACT=<p>By the end of 2020, 45 cities in the Chinese mainland operated 244 urban rail transit lines with a total length of 7,969.7 km, Urban rail transit in Chinese cities witnessed a steady growth both in operating scale and passenger traffic in 10 years. Recent studies have explored the environmental and social effects of urban rail transit; however lack in-depth discussion on economic growth. As a quasi-natural experiment, this paper empirically tests the effect of the opening of urban rail transit on urban economic growth based on the panel data of 286 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2020 and PSM-DID Model. Analysis results show that, rail transit drives urban economic growth. This effect has scale heterogeneity and regional heterogeneity. The findings of this study can provide a valuable reference for the government when it plans the layout of urban rail transit for construction.</p>