Finds that the China-Europe Railway Express boosts innovation in manufacturing firms, highlighting its role in competitive trade.
Amid global supply chain restructuring, this study examines how the China‐Europe Railway Express transitions from logistics connectivity to innovation empowerment. Using its launch as a quasi‐natural experiment, we find that the China‐Europe Railway Express significantly accelerates innovation in Chinese manufacturing firms, especially for high‐tech and high‐productivity firms. The promotion effect primarily through technology spillovers from high‐differentiated products, with no significant impact from middle‐ or low‐differentiated products. Spatial analysis indicates that the innovation spillovers of the China‐Europe Railway Express extend up to 500 km for overall innovation, 350 km for breakthrough innovation, and 450 km for incremental innovation. These findings underscore the railwayʼs role in fostering competitive advantages through innovation‐driven trade linkages.
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Song et al. (2026) studied this question.
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