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High skilled workers gain from face to face interactions.If the skilled can move at higher speeds,then such knowledge diffusion and spillovers are likely to reach greater distances.This paper uses the construction of Chinas high speed rail(HSR)network as a natural experiment to test this claim.Since bullet trains reduce cross-city commute times,they reduce the cost of face-to-face interactions between skilled workers who live and work in different cities.Using a complete data base listing research paper publication and citations,we document a complementarity effect between knowledge production and the transportation network.Co-authors productivity rises and more new co-author pairs emerge when secondary cities are connected to Chinas top universities located in the major cities.