The Spillover Effects of High‐Speed Railway Networks From the Perspective of Industrial Agglomeration

As an important part of modern transportation infrastructure, high‐speed rail (HSR) networks not only reduce the spatiotemporal distance between regions but also generate widespread spillover effects through mechanisms such as population mobility, technological innovation, and market expansion. Based on the city‐level panel data from 2008 to 2021, this paper uses a spatial econometric model and a generalized structural equation model (GSEM) to study the spatial spillover effects of HSR networks on the three industrial agglomerations and tests the impact mechanism of HSR networks on industrial agglomeration. We find that HSR networks significantly inhibit the agglomeration of primary and secondary industries while significantly promoting that of the tertiary industry. Regional heterogeneity analysis shows that HSR networks have a negative impact on the secondary industry agglomeration in the eastern region but obviously promote the tertiary industry agglomeration, and their promotion effect on the tertiary industry is also significant in the central and western regions. The results of the mechanism test show that HSR networks significantly affect the agglomeration of the three industries through the path of population mobility, technological innovation, and market scale.