High-speed railway opening and urban green productivity in the post-COVID-19: Evidence from green finance

In an era during which the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, high-speed railway (HSR), as one of the key influencers of urban green development, has a significant impact on urban green finance and green productivity. This paper uses HSR as a quasi-natural experiment to study the effect of HSR openings on green productivity in Chinese cities. The empirical results show that, first, the opening of HSR is conducive to the sustained improvement of green productivity in Chinese cities. Second, the opening of HSR makes a significant contribution to the improvement of green productivity in large-scale cities as well as cities in the east and central regions. Third, the opening of HSR can positively impact urban green productivity through the mechanism of green finance development. However, this positive impact tends to first increase and then decrease over time. As the relationship between “finance” and “environment,” green finance has an important impact on the green development of cities. These findings will provide positive and useful references for cities to formulate reasonable green development plans in the post-COVID-19 era.