Broadband Infrastructure and Economic Growth

Nina Czernich, Oliver Falck, Tobias Kretschmer and Ludger Woessmann

No 2861, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

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.

Keywords: broadband; high-speed internet; technology diffusion; economic growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K23 L96 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (45)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Broadband Infrastructure and Economic Growth (2011)
Working Paper: Broadband Infrastructure and Economic Growth (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_2861

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