A Key to Stimulate Green Technology Innovation in China: The Expansion of High-Speed Railways

Mankind is seeking a green development path. This paper places emphasis on whether high-speed railways (HSRs), as a typical representative of green transportation, can effectively promote green technology innovation in cities. Based on the panel data of 286 Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2007 to 2018, we employ the Panel Negative Binomial Regression Model and the Spatial Dubin Model for empirical analysis. The results illustrate that the expansion of HSRs not only has a direct and substantial promotion influence on local green technology innovation but also on the surrounding area. We further find that circulation node cities reap more benefits of the opening of HSRs than other ordinary cities. The higher the degree of marketization, the weaker the marginal impact of HSRs on green technology innovation. Meanwhile, the mechanism test confirms that HSRs can indirectly stimulate the progress of green technology innovation by influencing the creative class flow and the government’s environmental concerns. Our findings present new insights for enhancing green technology innovation and provide policy recommendations for local governments to take advantage of HSRs to obtain resources.