Does high speed rail enhance financial development?. Issue 5 (12th March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Haoyang; Chan, Kam C.
• Is Part Of: Applied economics letters. Volume 29:Issue 5(2022)
• Page Start: 442
• Page End: 445
• Publication Date: 2022-03-12
• Subjects: Spatiotemporal squeezing -- high-speed railway -- analyst -- information flow; G14 -- D82 -- R49; Economics -- Periodicals; Economics, Mathematical -- Periodicals; 330
• DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2020.1869164
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1350-4851

Abstract

ABSTRACT: We investigate the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) opening on analysts information-gathering. Our findings suggest that the number of site visits by analysts and the number of analysts involved in the site visits increase significantly after the opening of HSR in the cities in which the listed firms are located. Additional analysis suggests that firms located in HSR cities experience increase in liquidity and decrease in earnings management. Hence, the spatiotemporal squeezing effect generated by HSR opening significantly improves the accessibility of the local firms, reduces the information-gathering costs of analysts, increases the willingness of analysts to conduct site visits, and accelerates the information flow of the listed firms.