High-Speed railways and the spread of Covid-19
发布时间：2022-08-10 点击次数：
论文类型：期刊论文
通讯作者：沈淑琳
发表刊物：Travel Behaviour and Society
收录刊物：SSCI
学科门类：经济学
一级学科：应用经济学
文献类型：J
期号：30
页面范围：1-10
ISSN号：2214-367X
关键字：High-speed rails；Covid-19；Pandemic；Transportation infrastructure
DOI码：10.1016/j.tbs.2022.08.001
发表时间：2022-08-10
影响因子：5.85
摘要：High-speed railways (HSRs) greatly decrease transportation costs and facilitate the movement of goods, services, and passengers across cities. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, HSRs may contribute to the cross-regional spread of the new coronavirus. This paper evaluates the role of HSRs in spreading Covid-19 from Wuhan to other Chinese cities. We use train frequencies in 1971 and 1990 as instrumental variables. Empirical results from gravity models demonstrate that one more HSR train originating from Wuhan each day before the Wuhan lockdown increases the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in a city by about 10 percent. The empirical analysis suggests that other transportation modes, including normal-speed trains and airline flights, also contribute to the spread of Covid-19, but their effects are smaller than the effect of HSRs. This paper’s findings indicate that transportation infrastructures, especially HSR trains originating from a city where a pandemic broke out, can be important factors promoting the spread of an infectious disease.