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The rewards of municipal broadband: An econometric analysis of the labor market

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  • Ford, George S.
  • Alan Seals, R.

Abstract

With data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, we estimate the effect of a large-scale, government-owned broadband network in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on labor market outcomes. Difference-in-Differences, augmented with Coarsened Exact Matching, is used to estimate the causal effect of the network across nine labor market outcomes. We find no economically- nor statistically-significant effect on the labor market from the city's broadband investments.

Suggested Citation

  • Ford, George S. & Alan Seals, R., 2021. "The rewards of municipal broadband: An econometric analysis of the labor market," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(8).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:45:y:2021:i:8:s0308596121001245
    DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2021.102220
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Yoo, Christopher S. & Lambert, Jesse & Pfenninger, Timothy P., 2022. "Municipal fiber in the United States: A financial assessment," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5).
    2. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Broadband; Internet; Government-owned network; Municipal broadband;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O00 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - General - - - General
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software
    • L96 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Telecommunications

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