IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/telpol/v43y2019i72.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An evaluation of the Connected Nation broadband adoption program

Author

Listed:
  • Manlove, Jacob
  • Whitacre, Brian

Abstract

Closing the digital divide and increasing broadband adoption within households and communities continues to be a target for government and nonprofit groups. While a large number of studies have examined policies and programs aimed at improving broadband infrastructure availability, little analysis to date has focused on evaluating efforts to increase adoption. One of the most well-known programs focused on adoption is Connected Nation, which partnered with 14 states to provide local curricula aimed at raising residential connection rates. This analysis uses a generalized difference-in-difference methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of the Connected Nation program in 5 states during 2012 and 2013. The results indicate that participation in the Connected Nation program had no significant impact on broadband adoption rates. This paper represents a rigorous evaluation of one of the most well-known adoption-oriented programs and emphasizes that measurable impacts of such efforts may not accrue over the short term.

Suggested Citation

  • Manlove, Jacob & Whitacre, Brian, 2019. "An evaluation of the Connected Nation broadband adoption program," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1-1.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:43:y:2019:i:7:2
    DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2019.02.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308596118304269
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.telpol.2019.02.003?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manlove, Jacob & Whitacre, Brian, 2019. "Understanding the trend to mobile-only internet connections:A decomposition analysis," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 76-87.
    2. Brian E. Whitacre & Jacob L. Manlove, 2016. "Broadband and civic engagement in rural areas: What matters?," Community Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(5), pages 700-717, October.
    3. 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.
    4. Dinterman, Robert & Renkow, Mitch, 2017. "Evaluation of USDA's Broadband Loan Program: Impacts on broadband provision," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 140-153.
    5. Marco Caliendo & Sabine Kopeinig, 2008. "Some Practical Guidance For The Implementation Of Propensity Score Matching," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 31-72, February.
    6. Gregory Rosston & Scott Wallsten, 2013. "The Broadband Stimulus: A Rural Boondoggle and Missed Opportunity," Discussion Papers 13-008, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    7. Amy M.G. Kandilov & Ivan T. Kandilov & Xiangping Liu & Mitch Renkow, 2017. "The Impact of Broadband on U.S. Agriculture: An Evaluation of the USDA Broadband Loan Program," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 39(4), pages 635-661.
    8. repec:oup:ajagec:v:99:y:2017:i:1:p:1-18. is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Hauge & Prieger, 2015. "Evaluating the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's BTOP on broadband adoption," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(60), pages 6553-6579, December.
    10. Alberto Abadie, 2005. "Semiparametric Difference-in-Differences Estimators," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(1), pages 1-19.
    11. Brian Whitacre & Roberto Gallardo & Sharon Strover, 2014. "Does rural broadband impact jobs and income? Evidence from spatial and first-differenced regressions," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 53(3), pages 649-670, November.
    12. Ashenfelter, Orley & Card, David, 1985. "Using the Longitudinal Structure of Earnings to Estimate the Effect of Training Programs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(4), pages 648-660, November.
    13. 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.
    14. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    15. Abadie, Alberto & Diamond, Alexis & Hainmueller, Jens, 2010. "Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies: Estimating the Effect of California’s Tobacco Control Program," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 105(490), pages 493-505.
    16. Hauge Janice A & Prieger James E., 2010. "Demand-Side Programs to Stimulate Adoption of Broadband: What Works?," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(3), pages 1-38, August.
    17. Kolko, Jed, 2012. "Broadband and local growth," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 100-113.
    18. Nina Czernich & Oliver Falck & Tobias Kretschmer & Ludger Woessmann, 2011. "Broadband Infrastructure and Economic Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(552), pages 505-532, May.
    19. Holt, Lynne & Jamison, Mark, 0. "Broadband and contributions to economic growth: Lessons from the US experience," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(10-11), pages 575-581, November.
    20. Trevor Roycroft, 2013. "Empirical study of broadband adoption using data from the 2009 Residential Energy Consumption Survey," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 214-228, April.
    21. 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.
    22. Peronard, Jean-Paul & Just, Flemming, 2011. "User motivation for broadband: A rural Danish study," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 691-701, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yifeng Philip Chen & Edward J. Oughton & Jakub Zagdanski & Maggie Mo Jia & Peter Tyler, 2023. "Crowdsourced data indicates broadband has a positive impact on local business creation," Papers 2308.14734, arXiv.org.
    2. Whitacre, Brian & Gallardo, Roberto, 2020. "State broadband policy: Impacts on availability," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(9).
    3. Liu, Chun & Wang, Lian, 2021. "Who is left behind? Exploring the characteristics of China's broadband non-adopting families," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9).
    4. Rabbani, Maysam, 2024. "Internet price, speed, and disparity: The case of rural healthcare providers in the United States," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(2).
    5. Chang, Jieun, 2021. "Broadband technology opportunities program public computer center grants and residential broadband adoption," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(8).
    6. Oughton, Edward J. & Amaglobeli, David & Moszoro, Marian, 2023. "What would it cost to connect the unconnected? Estimating global universal broadband infrastructure investment," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10).
    7. Philip Chen & Edward J Oughton & Pete Tyler & Mo Jia & Jakub Zagdanski, 2020. "Evaluating the impact of next generation broadband on local business creation," Papers 2010.14113, arXiv.org.
    8. Laura Robinson & Jeremy Schulz & Matías Dodel & Teresa Correa & Eduardo Villanueva-Mansilla & Sayonara Leal & Claudia Magallanes-Blanco & Leandro Rodriguez-Medina & Hopeton S. Dunn & Lloyd Levine & Ro, 2020. "Digital Inclusion Across the Americas and Caribbean," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 244-259.
    9. Roberto Gallardo & Brian Whitacre & Indraneel Kumar & Sreedhar Upendram, 2021. "Broadband metrics and job productivity: a look at county-level data," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 66(1), pages 161-184, February.
    10. Pender, John & Goldstein, Joshua & Mahoney-Nair, Devika, 2022. "Impacts of the Broadband Initiatives Program on broadband adoption and home telework," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(8).
    11. Han, Luyi & Wojan, Timothy R. & Goetz, Stephan J., 2023. "Experimenting in the cloud: The digital divide's impact on innovation," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(7).
    12. Biedny, Christina & Whitacre, Brian & Gallardo, Roberto, 2022. "Do ‘dig once’ and permitting policies improve fiber availability?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5).

    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. Deller, Steven & Whitacre, Brian, 2018. "Broadband’s Relationship to Rural Housing Values," Staff Paper Series 591, University of Wisconsin, Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    2. Biedny, Christina & Whitacre, Brian & Gallardo, Roberto, 2022. "Do ‘dig once’ and permitting policies improve fiber availability?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5).
    3. Whitacre, Brian & Gallardo, Roberto, 2020. "State broadband policy: Impacts on availability," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(9).
    4. Brian Whitacre & Roberto Gallardo & Sharon Strover, 2014. "Does rural broadband impact jobs and income? Evidence from spatial and first-differenced regressions," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 53(3), pages 649-670, November.
    5. Pender, John & Goldstein, Joshua & Mahoney-Nair, Devika, 2022. "Impacts of the Broadband Initiatives Program on broadband adoption and home telework," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(8).
    6. Bai, Yang & Wang, Ryan Yang & Jayakar, Krishna, 2022. "What $2.5 billion can buy: The effect of the Broadband Initiatives Program on farm productivity," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(7).
    7. Lee, Hyun Ji & Whitacre, Brian, 2017. "Estimating willingness-to-pay for broadband attributes among low-income consumers: Results from two FCC lifeline pilot projects," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 769-780.
    8. Stockinger, Bastian, 2017. "The effect of broadband internet on establishments' employment growth: evidence from Germany," IAB-Discussion Paper 201719, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    9. Lobo, Bento J. & Alam, Md Rafayet & Whitacre, Brian E., 2020. "Broadband speed and unemployment rates: Data and measurement issues," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1).
    10. Whitacre, Brian & Rhinesmith, Colin, 2016. "Broadband un-adopters," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 1-13.
    11. Ivan T. Kandilov & Mitch Renkow, 2020. "The Impacts Of The Usda Broadband Loan And Grant Programs: Moving Toward Estimating A Rate Of Return," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(3), pages 1129-1145, July.
    12. LoPiccalo, Katherine, 2022. "Impact of broadband penetration on U.S. Farm productivity: A panel approach," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(9).
    13. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    14. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Guido Imbens, 2023. "Causal Models for Longitudinal and Panel Data: A Survey," Papers 2311.15458, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    15. Daniel Kandie & Khan Jahirul Islam, 2022. "A new era of microfinance: The digital microcredit and its impact on poverty," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(3), pages 469-492, April.
    16. Mack, Elizabeth A. & Rey, Sergio J., 2014. "An econometric approach for evaluating the linkages between broadband and knowledge intensive firms," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 105-118.
    17. Wei Chen & Zaiyan Wei & Karen Xie, 2022. "The Battle for Homes: How Does Home Sharing Disrupt Local Residential Markets?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(12), pages 8589-8612, December.
    18. Roberto Gallardo & Brian Whitacre & Indraneel Kumar & Sreedhar Upendram, 2021. "Broadband metrics and job productivity: a look at county-level data," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 66(1), pages 161-184, February.
    19. Calvin Jones & Dylan Henderson, 2019. "Broadband and uneven spatial development: The case of Cardiff City-Region," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 34(3), pages 228-247, May.
    20. Bauer, Anahid & Feir, Donn. L. & Gregg, Matthew T., 2022. "The tribal digital divide: Extent and Explanations," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(9).

    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:eee:telpol:v:43:y:2019:i:7:2. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30471/description#description .

    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.