Broadband Infrastructure and Economic Growth
| Autoren/Herausgeber: |
Czernich, N. Falck, O. Kretschmer, T. Wößmann, L. |
|---|---|
| Erschienen: | 2011 |
| Publikationsart: | Articles in Refereed Journals (International) |
| ISBN/ISSN: | 0013-0133 |
| erschienen in: | The Economic Journal, 121(5), pp. 505-532 |
Abstract
We estimate the effect of broadband infrastructure, which enables high-speed internet, on economic growth in the panel of OECD countries in 1996-2007. Our instrumental-variable model derives its non-linear first stage from a logistic diffusion model where pre-existing voice-telephony and cable-TV networks predict maximum broadband penetration. We find that a 10 percentage-point increase in broadband penetration raises annual per-capita growth by 0.9-1.5 percentage points. Results are robust to country and year fixed effects and controlling for linear second-stage effects of our instruments. We verify that our instruments predict broadband penetration but not diffusion of contemporaneous technologies like mobile telephony and computers.