Transport Connectivity and Regional Development in China
Kevin X. Li, Guanqiu Qi
2016
Journal of International Logistics and Trade
This paper examines the relationship between transport connectivity and regional economic development in China. It develops measurements appropriate for transport connectivity based on a set of evaluation models. This model is used to analyze the logistic connectivity of China's 31 provinces by focusing on 11 variables, including some new factors (Density of road network, Density of railway network, Number of Internet Users) not used in previous studies, over the 13-year period from 2002 to
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... . Using panel data regression analysis, the empirical results show a statistically significant and positive impact of transport connectivity (factors like Density of road network, Density of railway network and Number of Internet Users) on economic development in China. In particular, the Number of internet users is a key factor reflecting information connectivity in all the variables. Comparative analysis regarding economic development is conducted to benchmark between coastal provinces and interior provinces. Like most previous research, this study yields the same finding of higher impact of transport connectivity on economic development in eastern provinces than in western provinces. This study suggests that decentralized decision-making will be significantly more efficient for analyzing regional infrastructure development. It also shows that the influence of transport connectivity on economic development is dependent on a certain developmental stage. This suggests that an economic region should adopt different development strategies for transport connectivity during different stages of development. -143 -infrastructure. China's government has also proposed a new economic paradigm, the One Belt, One Road initiative, which focuses on connectivity and cooperation among mainly Eurasian countries and aims to redirect the country's domestic overcapacity and capital for regional infrastructure development to improve trade and relations with Asian, Central Asian, and European countries (Kennedy and Parker 2015). Generally speaking, "connectivity" is a form of access between two systems. In the context of transportation planning, connectivity represents the ease, time, or cost of traveling between different transportation route systems or modal systems (Alstadt et al. 2012) . This study extends the connectivity definition to all activities to link elements that occur in logistics movements. Transport connectivity links movements of several mechanisms. First, physical connectivity such as transport infrastructure increases the demand for goods and services of customers in different locations. Zhao et al. (2006) identified the railway stations in China as "nodes" and rails as "links" and then generated a railway geographic network to carry cargo or people. As a consequence, some policy-makers have been encouraged to make substantial investments in expanding the nation's transport network, in order to gain benefits from reduced inventories and increased cost savings (Banister and connectivity concerns both physical infrastructure and people. Finally, with the rapid installation of computer networks and Information and Communication Technology (ICT), information connectivity plays an important role in promoting economic development and improving the economy (Hernando and Soledad 2004). Information connectivity has become prolific with the widespread use of ICT. These factors have operated as key driving forces to enhance the economic integration of regions in China and to reinforce economic growth. The efficiency gains from logistics information reduce travel time, and passenger and freight transporters gain direct time and cost savings (Bosworth 2000; Closs et al. 2005; Gunasekera et al. 2008) . Accordingly, the previous literature suggests that transport connectivity consists of physical, information, and people connectivity. In this paper several factors to the current literature will be added. Key factors of transport connectivity performance are the density of road network, density of railway network, number of private vehicles, turnover of freight traffic, freight transportation capacity, number of highways, number of expresses, number of postal outlets, number of internet users, turnover of passenger traffic, and passenger capacity. Goh (2003) indicated that improvements to China's transportation connectivity to address congestion problems are already underway, though whether an efficient distribution network will develop remains to be seen. Nevertheless, transport connectivity is a great opportunity for China. Throughout the 1980s, transport connectivity in developed economies was becoming important; for example, in Central and Eastern Europe, researchers focused on the evolution of complicated distribution systems in order to establish efficient supply-chain management (Lorentz 2007; Wang and Cullinane 2006) . In the 1990s, however, a stream of research linking transport connectivity to economic development triggered potential research to cover Per capita GDP (Borensztein et al. 1998) GDP (Barro 1989
doi:10.24006/jilt.2016.14.2.142
fatcat:ztwoyte76vbgvm7vekvphk2gfi