Abstract: Promoting the integrated development of technology markets can facilitate the efficient allocation of innovation resources and provide market support for cultivating new quality productivity. Using micro-level monthly transaction data from Chinese cities at the prefecture level and above from 2006 to 2017, this article considers the high-speed railway network connectivity as a quasi-natural experiment and applies a staggered DID method to examine the impact of the high-speed railway network connectivity on inter-city patent transaction, while exploring the micro-mechanism of technology market integrated development from the perspective of transaction costs. The findings are as follow. Firstly, the high-speed railway network connectivity significantly enhances the integration of technology markets by increasing both the scale of patent transactions and the probability of patent trading among cities, with the effect marginally increasing over time. Secondly, the mechanism underlying the findings involves lower search and matching costs and information asymmetry, evidenced by shorter transaction times and an increase in high-quality and technologically complex patent transactions. Thirdly, online and offline transactions in technology markets are complementary, with the high-speed railway network connectivity promoting regional coordination within urban clusters and having a stronger impact on strategic emerging industries than on traditional ones. This study provides policy insights into building a unified national technology market by lowering transaction costs and offers empirical evidence for optimizing the allocation of innovation resources and accelerating the industrialization of innovation outcomes across regions.
