IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/reihed/v65y2024i5d10.1007_s11162-024-09775-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Variation in Broadband Access Among Undergraduate Populations Across the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin Skinner

    (University of Florida)

  • Taylor Burtch

    (Florida State University)

  • Hazel Levy

    (University of Florida)

Abstract

Increasing numbers of students require internet access to pursue their undergraduate degrees, yet broadband access remains inequitable across student populations. Furthermore, surveys that currently show differences in access by student demographics or location typically do so at high levels of aggregation, thereby obscuring important variation between subpopulations within larger groups. Through the dual lenses of quantitative intersectionality and critical race spatial analysis alongside a QuantCrit approach, we use Bayesian multilevel regression and Census microdata to model variation in broadband access among undergraduate populations at deeper interactions of identity. We find substantive heterogeneity in student broadband access by gender, race, and place, including between typically aggregated subpopulations. Our findings speak to inequities in students’ geographies of opportunity and suggest a range of policy prescriptions at both the institutional and federal level.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin Skinner & Taylor Burtch & Hazel Levy, 2024. "Variation in Broadband Access Among Undergraduate Populations Across the United States," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 65(5), pages 827-870, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:reihed:v:65:y:2024:i:5:d:10.1007_s11162-024-09775-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11162-024-09775-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11162-024-09775-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11162-024-09775-w?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. Doyle, William R. & Skinner, Benjamin T., 2016. "Estimating the education-earnings equation using geographic variation," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 254-267.
    2. Daniel Klasik & Kristin Blagg & Zachary Pekor, 2018. "Out of the Education Desert: How Limited Local College Options are Associated with Inequity in Postsecondary Opportunities," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-26, September.
    3. 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.
    4. Stella M. Flores & Toby J. Park & Dominique J. Baker, 2017. "The Racial College Completion Gap: Evidence From Texas," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 88(6), pages 894-921, November.
    5. Lisa J. Dettling & Sarena Goodman & Jonathan Smith, 2018. "Every Little Bit Counts: The Impact of High-Speed Internet on the Transition to College," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(2), pages 260-273, May.
    6. Josef Kuo-Hsun Ma & Todd E. Vachon & Simon Cheng, 2019. "National Income, Political Freedom, and Investments in R&D and Education: A Comparative Analysis of the Second Digital Divide Among 15-Year-Old Students," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 133-166, July.
    7. Patricia Hill Collins, 2000. "Gender, Black Feminism, and Black Political Economy," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 568(1), pages 41-53, March.
    8. Charles Ka Yui Leung & Joe Cho Yiu Ng & Edward Chi Ho Tang, 2020. "What do we know about housing supply? The case of Hong Kong SAR," Economic and Political Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 6-20, January.
    9. William R. Doyle & Benjamin T. Skinner, 2017. "Does Postsecondary Education Result in Civic Benefits?," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 88(6), pages 863-893, November.
    10. Fairlie, Robert W, 2017. "Have we finally bridged the digital divide? Smart phone and Internet use patterns by race and ethnicity," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt2591v2w7, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    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. Mikołaj Czajkowski & Tomasz Gajderowicz & Marek Giergiczny & Gabriela Grotkowska & Urszula Sztandar-Sztanderska, 2020. "Choosing the Future: Economic Preferences for Higher Education Using Discrete Choice Experiment Method," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 61(4), pages 510-539, June.
    2. Acton, Riley & Cortes, Kalena E. & Miller, Lois & Morales, Camila, 2024. "Distance to Degrees: How College Proximity Shapes Students' Enrollment Choices and Attainment across Race-Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status," IZA Discussion Papers 17338, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Benjamin T. Skinner, 2019. "Choosing College in the 2000s: An Updated Analysis Using the Conditional Logistic Choice Model," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 60(2), pages 153-183, March.
    4. Sarkar, Avijit & Pick, James B. & Rosales, Jessica, 2023. "Multivariate and geospatial analysis of technology utilization in US counties," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(7).
    5. Peter Bergman, 2020. "Nudging Technology Use: Descriptive and Experimental Evidence from School Information Systems," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 15(4), pages 623-647, Fall.
    6. Oughton, Edward J., 2016. "Studying the Costs of Fibre Deployment in Fixed Broadband Access Infrastructure: Evidence from the UK's National Needs Assessment," 27th European Regional ITS Conference, Cambridge (UK) 2016 148695, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    7. Smriti Rao & Smita Ramnarain, 2023. "Gender, Social Protection, and Crises of Social Reproduction: Contextualizing NREGA," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 55(1), pages 70-92, March.
    8. Elena Druică & Rodica Ianole-Călin & Andreea-Ionela Puiu, 2023. "When Less Is More: Understanding the Adoption of a Minimalist Lifestyle Using the Theory of Planned Behavior," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-18, January.
    9. Dodin, Majed & Findeisen, Sebastian & Henkel, Lukas & Sachs, Dominik & Schüle, Paul, 2024. "Social mobility in Germany," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    10. Viktor Ivanovich Blanutsa, 2022. "Regionalization of the Digital Economic Space: Contours of Emerging Approaches," Spatial Economics=Prostranstvennaya Ekonomika, Economic Research Institute, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (Khabarovsk, Russia), issue 2, pages 56-82.
    11. Kolko, Jed, 2012. "Broadband and local growth," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 100-113.
    12. Adair Morse & Karen Pence, 2021. "Technological Innovation and Discrimination in Household Finance," Springer Books, in: Raghavendra Rau & Robert Wardrop & Luigi Zingales (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Technological Finance, pages 783-808, Springer.
    13. Ventura, Eva & Satorra, Albert, 2015. "A multiple indicator model for panel data: an application to ICT area-level variation," 26th European Regional ITS Conference, Madrid 2015 127191, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    14. Amani M. Taylor & Arien J. Hernandez & Aysha K. Peterson & Sikina Jinnah, 2022. "Faculty diversity in California environmental studies departments: implications for student learning," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 12(3), pages 490-504, September.
    15. Jeet Agnihotri & Subhankar Mishra, 2021. "Indian Economy and Nighttime Lights," Papers 2103.03179, arXiv.org.
    16. Antoni Barnard & Aleksandra Furtak, 2020. "Psychological Resilience of Volunteers in a South African Health Care Context: A Salutogenic Approach and Hermeneutic Phenomenological Inquiry," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-15, April.
    17. Noah Hirschl & Christian Michael Smith, 2020. "Well-Placed: The Geography of Opportunity and High School Effects on College Attendance," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 61(5), pages 567-587, August.
    18. Kolko, Jed, 2006. "Why Should Governments Support Broadband Adoption?," MPRA Paper 3363, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Sarah Duffy & Michelle O’Shea & Liyaning Maggie Tang, 2023. "Sexually harassed, assaulted, silenced, and now heard: Institutional betrayal and its affects," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1387-1406, July.
    20. Downes, Tom & Greenstein, Shane, 2007. "Understanding why universal service obligations may be unnecessary: The private development of local Internet access markets," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 2-26, July.

    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:spr:reihed:v:65:y:2024:i:5:d:10.1007_s11162-024-09775-w. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.