Abstract: Based on a sample of 94,889 fine-grained observations from 20 industries in 331 cities from 2005 to 2020, this paper uses the opening of high-speed railways as a quasi-natural experimental scenario to examine the impact of transportation accessibility on regional economic vitality using the Difference-in-Differences method. The empirical test finds that the opening of high-speed railways significantly stimulates the economic vitality of the region, which is the result of three effects: population agglomeration, capital agglomeration and market agglomeration. However, this impact is not balanced and there is a siphoning effect, i.e., the enhancement brought about by the opening of high-speed railways is more pronounced in regions with comparative economic or locational advantages. This paper enriches our understanding of the positive externalities of transportation accessibility from the perspective of regional economic vitality, and provides positive policy references for China’s optimization of high-speed rail layout, sustained improvement of livelihood construction, and promotion of high-quality economic development.

Key words: economic vitality, high-speed rail opening, traffic accessibility, siphon effect