Research

Online businesses and platform work can create the impression that the digital economy is ephemeral and placeless. But the digital economy is experienced locally, and its effects are spatial. Measuring them requires better community-level data on economic activities online. While new government data measures broadband subscriptions down to neighborhoods, existing public data do not measure how broadband is used in local communities, and whether this digital activity affects economic outcomes.

Results from a new survey of US adults reveal the extent to which people’s use of the internet has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, their views about how helpful technology has been for them and the struggles some have faced. The vast majority of adults (90%) say the internet has been at least important to them personally during the pandemic, the survey finds. The share who say it has been essential – 58% – is up slightly from 53% in April 2020.

This research presents evidence on the relationship between broadband pricing and labor market outcomes for low-income individuals. Specifically, it estimates the effects of a Comcast service providing discounted broadband to qualifying low-income families. Author George Zuo uses a triple differences strategy exploiting geographic variation in Comcast coverage, individual variation in eligibility, and temporal variation pre-and post-launch.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the deep digital divide in Mexico and the enormous challenge faced by its education system in continuing to educate the country's students while under confinement.

In August 2012, the Irish government published a National Broadband Plan (NBP) which set a target of a minimum 30 Mbps download speed for all households in the country. The expected overall cost of the original plan was €350 million, with the government stating that it would contribute half of this amount along with the private sector. By 2020, these ambitious targets had not been met. After a protracted and controversial procurement process, the cost of government subsidy for the NBP had escalated to between €2.2bn and €2.9bn and the plan will not be completed until at least 2026.

This report discusses issues that arise when service providers place network equipment on publicly owned lands in the United States. Based on land use policy at the Federal Communications Commission, this paper theorizes that the use of public lands for 5G network development will create a moral hazard, as service providers may be tempted to take risks in the way they use public lands. Providers could behave recklessly when knowing that the costs will be borne by someone else – in this case, local citizens. This is an example of the moral hazard problem in economics.

A new report found that teens believe unreliable broadband access contributes to economic and social inequities, perceptions of reduced career prospects, significantly lower digital literacy and less confidence in their future success. Teens reveal the drastic impact that slow internet speeds have on their opportunities and urge the government to pick up the pace toward universal broadband access. Key findings include:

This paper describes the challenge of four rural broadband providers operating fiber to the home networks to recover the middle mile network costs of streaming video entertainment and quantifies the amount of the current and future shortfall. It describes the components of the rural broadband networks, policy background for their evolution, an overview of providers, and the financial calculations of cost recovery. The preliminary results show that current broadband prices are approximately $50 per month per subscriber.

The economic benefits of high-speed internet go beyond access and expansion, as examined by researchers from the University of Missouri Extension in their new study ‘The Economic Benefits of Expanding Broadband in Selected Missouri Counties.’ The study focused on three rural areas: Bollinger County has the lowest broadband adoptio

This report documents broadband initiatives at the county and city levels in areas statewide. It also highlights specific broadband access and adoption programs launched in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Corian Zacher, Next Century Cities’ Policy Counsel for State and Local Initiatives and lead researcher, said, “Ohio is well-known for innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship.