Bridging the gap: Assessing the effects of railway infrastructure investments in Northwest China
研究中国西北唯一高铁线（兰新高铁）对沿线县域经济活动的影响，利用机器学习扩展的夜间灯光数据，发现高铁开通既有赢家也有输家，并有助于突破胡焕庸线。
This paper investigates the economic effects of the opening of the only high-speed rail (HSR) line in northwest China, which connects the northwestern provinces along the Silk Road land route. Northwest China faces two major geographical challenges for economic development: its landlocked location and rugged terrain. To assess the impact of the HSR line on economic activity in counties along this Silk Road land route, we utilise a recently developed machine-learning extended nightlight dataset spanning from 2000 to 2019. For this analysis, we employ the ridge augmented synthetic control method (Ben-Michael et al., 2021). Additionally, we propose an algorithm that automates the donor pool selection process while ensuring optimal pre-treatment comparability. Our findings demonstrate that the opening of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang HSR line resulted in both winners and losers. While there are indications that HSR contributes to progress towards breaking through the Hu Huanyong Line, a geographical demarcation in China that is of vast economic significance, not all counties benefited from the opening of the HSR line.