Is high-speed rail a catalyst for the fourth industrial revolution in China? Story of enhanced technology spillovers from venture capital

As a critical infrastructure, the development of high-speed rail (HSR) inevitably exerts a marked impact on economic growth and sets the stage for different industrial revolutions. In this study, we set out an estimation framework designed to explore whether the spatial-temporal compression effect of HSR has paved the way for the Fourth Industrial Revolution characterized by urban technological innovation and whether HSR has strengthened the technology spillovers from venture capital (VC). The principal findings are as follows: First, the opening of HSR can strengthen urban technological performance, and compared with non-HSR cities, the number of patent applications is higher in HSR cities. Second, considering the heterogeneity of technological innovation, and the results show that the opening of HSR can significantly promote the breakthrough innovation and incremental innovation of cities, and has a more significant impact on the breakthrough innovation. Finally, VC has a highly significant and positive effect on urban technological performance. More notably, our findings suggest that the opening of HSR has a considerable shock effect on the technology spillovers from VC. This study has great practical significance for analyzing the impact of HSR on the transformation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution characterized by urban technological performance.