IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/growch/v41y2010i2p165-191.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Infrastructure Investment and Rural Economic Development: An Evaluation of USDA's Broadband Loan Program

Author

Listed:
  • IVAN T. KANDILOV
  • MITCH RENKOW

Abstract

We empirically evaluate whether participation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Broadband Loan Program, which began making loans in 2002, has had measurable positive impacts on zip code‐level economic outcomes. Using difference in differences and propensity score matching program evaluation techniques, we find that loans made in 2002 and 2003 under the Pilot Broadband Loan Program have had a substantial positive impact on employment, annual payroll, and the number of business establishments in recipient communities. However, a more spatially disaggregated analysis reveals that the positive economic impacts of the pilot program are driven primarily by the outcomes in communities located closest to urban areas. Finally, we find no evidence that loans received as part of the current Broadband Loan Program have had a measurable positive impact on recipient communities, possibly because not enough time has elapsed for the impacts of the current Broadband Loan Program to have emerged.

Suggested Citation

  • Ivan T. Kandilov & Mitch Renkow, 2010. "Infrastructure Investment and Rural Economic Development: An Evaluation of USDA's Broadband Loan Program," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 165-191, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:growch:v:41:y:2010:i:2:p:165-191
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2257.2010.00524.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2257.2010.00524.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-2257.2010.00524.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven C. Deller & Melissa A. Deller, 2010. "Rural Crime and Social Capital," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 221-275, June.
    2. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra E. Todd, 1997. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Programme," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(4), pages 605-654.
    3. Chris Forman & Avi Goldfarb & Shane Greenstein, 2009. "The Internet and Local Wages: Convergence or Divergence?," NBER Working Papers 14750, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Mark D. Partridge & Kamar Ali & M. Rose Olfert, 2010. "Rural‐to‐Urban Commuting: Three Degrees of Integration," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 303-335, June.
    5. Parker, Edwin B., 2000. "Closing the digital divide in rural America," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 281-290, May.
    6. Wood, Lawrence E., 2008. "Rural broadband: The provider matters," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 326-339, June.
    7. Halvorsen, Robert & Palmquist, Raymond, 1980. "The Interpretation of Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 474-475, June.
    8. Stephan J. Goetz & Yicheol Han & Jill L. Findeis & Kathryn J. Brasier, 2010. "U.S. Commuting Networks and Economic Growth: Measurement and Implications for Spatial Policy," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 276-302, June.
    9. James E. Prieger, 2003. "The Supply Side of the Digital Divide: Is There Equal Availability in the Broadband Internet Access Market?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(2), pages 346-363, April.
    10. James E. Prieger, 2003. "The Supply Side of the Digital Divide: Is There Equal Availability in the Broadband Internet Access Market?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(2), pages 346-363, April.
    11. Jonathan Corcoran & Alessandra Faggian & Philip Mccann, 2010. "Human Capital in Remote and Rural Australia: The Role of Graduate Migration," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 192-220, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hitt, Lorin & Tambe, Prasanna, 2007. "Broadband adoption and content consumption," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3-4), pages 362-378, October.
    2. M. Rose Olfert & Mark D. Partridge, 2010. "Best Practices in Twenty‐First‐Century Rural Development and Policy," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 147-164, June.
    3. Jonathan Corcoran & Alessandra Faggian & Philip Mccann, 2010. "Human Capital in Remote and Rural Australia: The Role of Graduate Migration," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 192-220, June.
    4. Renkow, Mitch, 2011. "Residential Broadband Availability: Evidence from Kentucky and North Carolina," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 40(2), pages 1-13, August.
    5. Mark D. Partridge & Kamar Ali & M. Rose Olfert, 2010. "Rural‐to‐Urban Commuting: Three Degrees of Integration," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 303-335, June.
    6. James Prieger, 2015. "The broadband digital divide and the benefits of mobile broadband for minorities," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 13(3), pages 373-400, September.
    7. Grubesic, Tony H., 2006. "A spatial taxonomy of broadband regions in the United States," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 423-448, November.
    8. Tony H. Grubesic, 2015. "The Broadband Provision Tensor," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 58-80, March.
    9. Mack, Elizabeth A. & Grubesic, Tony H., 2009. "Forecasting broadband provision," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 297-311, November.
    10. Stephan J. Goetz & Yicheol Han & Jill L. Findeis & Kathryn J. Brasier, 2010. "U.S. Commuting Networks and Economic Growth: Measurement and Implications for Spatial Policy," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 276-302, June.
    11. Aldashev, Alisher & Batkeyev, Birzhan, 2021. "Broadband Infrastructure and Economic Growth in Rural Areas," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    12. Brian E. Whitacre & Bradford F. Mills, 2007. "Infrastructure and the Rural—urban Divide in High-speed Residential Internet Access," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 30(3), pages 249-273, July.
    13. Jiao Xu & Chris Forman & Yu Jeffrey Hu, 2019. "Battle of the Internet Channels: How Do Mobile and Fixed-Line Quality Drive Internet Use?," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(1), pages 65-80, March.
    14. Martin Falk & Eva Hagsten, 2017. "Measuring the impact of the European Capital of Culture programme on overnight stays: evidence for the last two decades," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(12), pages 2175-2191, December.
    15. Gunhak Lee & Ningchuan Xiao, 2009. "Examining the tradeoff between residential broadband service coverage and network connectivity using a bi‐objective facility location model," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(3), pages 547-562, August.
    16. Chris Forman, 2013. "How has information technology use shaped the geography of economic activity?," Chapters, in: Frank Giarratani & Geoffrey J.D. Hewings & Philip McCann (ed.), Handbook of Industry Studies and Economic Geography, chapter 10, pages 253-270, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Falk, Martin, 2017. "Gains from horizontal collaboration among ski areas," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 92-104.
    18. Xiao, Mo & Orazem, Peter F., 2011. "Does the fourth entrant make any difference?: Entry and competition in the early U.S. broadband market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 547-561, September.
    19. Joanna P. Ganning & Kathy Baylis & Bumsoo Lee, 2013. "Spread And Backwash Effects For Nonmetropolitan Communities In The U.S," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 464-480, August.
    20. Jaume Benseny & Juuso Toyli & Heikki Hammainen & Andr'es Arcia-Moret, 2019. "The mitigating role of regulation on the concentric patterns of broadband diffusion. The case of Finland," Papers 1905.03002, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2020.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:growch:v:41:y:2010:i:2:p:165-191. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0017-4815 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.