When Metropolitan Location Is Not Enough: How Digital Technology Supported Businesses During COVID‐19

Chloé Duvivier, Diego Cardenas‐Morales and Jean Dubé

Growth and Change, 2026, vol. 57, issue 2

Abstract: Digital technology has played a major role in helping businesses withstand the economic shock resulting from the health crisis. The paper examines how digital technology, particularly broadband access, shapes the economic resilience of French establishments across the metropolitan‐to‐peripheral spectrum. Using a large survey of businesses from March 2020 to December 2021 and an exact matching procedure, we find that broadband access was crucial in helping businesses manage the crisis, particularly in areas outside major urban centers. Results are robust across indicators of economic performance, definitions of digital technology, matching variables, and area typologies. Although other factors may play a role, differences in digital maturity across locations account for a non‐negligible part of the spatial variation in broadband's impact. The results suggest that the health crisis may have helped narrow the gap between central and peripheral regions, as establishments outside urban centers were forced to adopt digital technologies.

Date: 2026
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/grow.70125

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:growch:v:57:y:2026:i:2:n:e70125

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0017-4815

Access Statistics for this article

Growth and Change is currently edited by Dan Rickman and Barney Warf

More articles in Growth and Change from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().