Title: High-Speed Rail Network, Industry Agglomeration and Urban Water Environment: Evidence from China

Speaker: Huanxiu Guo, Nanjing Audit University

Time: April 10th, 2019 13:30–15:00

Venue: Conference Room 106B, Zhonghui Building (IESR, JNU College of Economics)

About the speaker:

Huanxiu Guo is an Assistant Professor at Nanjing Audit University. After earning his Ph.D. in Development Economics from CERDI-CNRS (France), Huanxiu Guo firstly joined Université de Sherbrooke (Canada) and then Nanjing University (China) as a post-doctoral researcher. Huanxiu Guo's research interests are Development Economics, Resource and Environmental Economics, and Egricultural Economics. His research mainly focus on environmental policy in China, water polution control and sustainable agricultural development. Huanxiu Guo has widely published in international journals such as Journal of Public Economics, Transportation Research Part A, Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Development Studies, and China Economic Review.

Abstract:

In this paper, we provide a simple theoretical framework to illustrate the role of High-Speed Rail (HSR) network in improving urban water environment via industry agglomeration. We empirically test the theoretical predictions with a panel dataset of 39 manufacturing industries in 286 Chinese cities from 2004 to 2010. We find that cities with higher centrality in the HSR network tend to have less industrial water pollution. However, this pollution reduction effect is partially offset by the increased level of industrial water pollution in neighboring cities. We further explore the mechanism for such environmental impacts through industry agglomeration, demonstrating the movement of clean manufacturing firms to cities with higher HSR centrality. Based on these results, we provide solid evidence for the HSR in promoting sustainable urban development and warn against the potential environmental conflicts between neighboring cities along the development of HSR network.