Broadband adoption and self-employment - Evidence from the American Community Survey

Luyi Han ()
Additional contact information
Luyi Han: Pennsylvania State University

Economics Bulletin, 2026, vol. 46, issue 1, 393 - 404

Abstract: This study examines how broadband adoption affects self-employment among married women using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). I find a positive association between broadband adoption and self-employment in both non-metro and metro areas. A one standard deviation increase in broadband adoption is associated with about a 0.33 percentage point increase in the probability of self-employment. Additional analysis suggests that broadband adoption is also associated with higher work-from-home participation and lower unemployment rates, and the results remain robust after excluding individuals who work from home. These findings suggest that improved digital connectivity may expand flexible work opportunities.

Keywords: Broadband adoption; Information and Communications Technology; Self-employment; American Community Survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J2 L8 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03-30
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2026/Volume46/EB-26-V46-I1-P34.pdf (application/pdf)

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:ebl:ecbull:eb-26-00334

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Economics Bulletin from AccessEcon
Bibliographic data for series maintained by John P. Conley ().