Abstract: Based on the data of 282 prefecture-level cities in China from 2005 to 2016, this paper constructs an evaluation index system of high-quality development of urban economy from the five dimensions of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness and sharing. The findings of the study that employs the difference-in-differences method show that the opening to traffic of high-speed rails has significantly improved the level of high-quality economic development of the cities along the railways. In the long-term, this role is mainly reflected in the two connotative dimensions of innovation and coordination. The heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the opening of high-speed rails has the stronger promoting effect on the high-quality economic development of large cities and provincial capital cities, but has no obvious effect on small and medium-sized cities and non-provincial capital cities. The analysis of the affecting mechanism indicates that the entrepreneurial activity, the rationalization of industrial structure and the industrial structure supererogation have a significant promoting effect on the quality-oriented growth of cities with high-speed rails.

Key words: opening of high-speed rail, high quality economic development, industrial structure, entrepreneurial activity