Time–Space Compression and Urban Consumption Dynamism: The Impact of High-Speed Railway in China

Transportation is the vanguard of economic development. The high-speed railway network has substantially enhanced inter-regional accessibility, compressed spatiotemporal distances, and fostered high-quality socioeconomic development. As China transitions toward a consumption-driven growth model, leveraging the time–space compression effect of high-speed railway to stimulate domestic demand and promote consumption dynamism has become an imperative research priority. This study employed the entropy weight method to construct a consumption dynamism index based on panel data from 270 Chinese cities spanning 2008–2022. A multi-period Difference-in-Differences model was established to empirically examine the impact of time–space compression on consumption dynamism. The findings demonstrate that high-speed railway opening significantly promotes urban consumption dynamism, with stronger effects in peripheral and northern cities. Mechanism analysis reveals that time–space compression enhances consumption dynamism by facilitating population mobility and expanding consumer markets. Industrial agglomeration amplifies this effect by upgrading urban industrial quality and raising residents’ income levels. Spatial spillover analysis suggests that HSR openings in neighboring cities may have delayed negative effects on local consumption dynamism. This study extends the theoretical boundaries of HSR’s influence mechanism on urban consumption and provides valuable references for urban planning in the high-speed railway era.