Effectiveness of high-speed railway on regional economic growth for less developed areas

Whether high-speed railway (HSR) can drive regional economic growth (REG) along the route is controversial, and the effectiveness of HSR connecting less developed and developed regions especially need to be further tested. The Guangdong-Guangxi-Guizhou High-Speed Railway (GGGHSR) has connected the most developed eastern region and the less developed western region in China, and it's a typical object to study the impact of HSR on less developed areas. This paper uses NPP-VIIRS remote sensing data from the period 2012-2017 to represent the level of regional economic growth along the route, and uses the PSM-DID method to analyze the impact of HSR in a quantitative way. The results show the following: Firstly, opening of the GGGHSR has led to an increase in light value along the route, but not produced a significant "corridor effect" along the route, with no significant REG in all counties along the route; Secondly, the effectiveness of the GGGHSR have spatial differences along the route, with a greater effect on less developed areas and areas far away from regional center city; Thirdly, the effectiveness of HSR driving less developed areas is mainly through "investment effect" and "industrial structure effect" these two mechanisms. The contribution of this study lies in the use of objective light data to study the relationship between HSR and REG, and select this typical GGGHSR project proving the driving role of HSR in the economic growth of less developed areas.