Can Farmers Punch Their Tickets to Wealth? The Spillover Effect of High-Speed Railway on Agriculture Development.

This paper studied the impact of high-speed railway linesonagricultural outputin the regions along their routes. It also investigated the heterogeneity of this impactbased on the terrain characteristics. The results of empirical testsusing county-level data show that ahigh-speed railway line can bring higher agricultural "dividends" to counties along the line. Notably, low altitude areas and regionswith gentle terrain exhibit a more pronounced promotional effect on local agricultural output. High-speed railways mainly promote agricultural output by promoting the mechanization of agriculture in counties along the route, thus reinvigorating the agricultural population and the development of specialty agriculture. Ourfindingsprovide quasi-microscopic evidence of the potential benefits of transportation infrastructure construction to break down geographical barriers and facilitate production factor flow, and providesa theoretical basis for the economic spillover effects of high-speed railway construction. Plain Language Summary: This paper studied the impact of high-speed railway lines on agricultural output in the regions along their routes. It also investigated the heterogeneity of this impact based on the terrain characteristics. The results of empirical tests using county-level data show that a high-speed railway line can bring higher agricultural "dividends" to counties along the line. Notably, low altitude areas and regions with gentle terrain exhibit a more pronounced promotional effect on local agricultural output. High-speed railways mainly promote agricultural output by promoting the mechanization of agriculture in counties along the route, thus reinvigorating the agricultural population and the development of specialty agriculture. Our findings provide quasi-microscopic evidence of the potential benefits of transportation infrastructure construction to break down geographical barriers and facilitate production factor flow, and provides a theoretical basis for the economic spillover effects of high-speed railway construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]