ABSTRACT
High-speed rail (HSR) is a new type of transportation infrastructure that until recently was confined to Japan and some of the more developed regions in the European Union, primarily France, Germany, and Spain. This chapter focuses on the economic effects of Taiwan's HSR by estimating the influence on land prices of relative HSR accessibility in two medium-sized Taiwanese regions. It provides some background regarding the impact of HSR and other investments in rail transportation on land-use patterns and the urban economy. The European network has been extended to Spain and Belgium. There have been no hedonic price studies undertaken that deal explicitly with high-speed rail effects in these countries, but studies of population and employment growth have shown a significant association between HSR connectivity and such growth in Japan, particularly employment growth in business services such as advertising and consulting.
