Broadband's Impact: A Brief Literature Review

Broadband and the digital applications it makes possible are impacting residents, businesses, and governments alike. This condensed literature review has focused on the array of research that has documented broadband’s impact on topics ranging from economic development to civic engagement and fields as diverse as healthcare and agriculture. While some researchers argue that the true impact of digital applications are not being properly measured, recent research has found that the Internet sector in the US was responsible for six percent of real GDP in 2014 or about $966 billion surpassing chemical products, accommodation and food services among others. Furthermore, research found that the digital services subsector of advanced industries was responsible for 60 percent of the advanced industries employment growth since 2014 and that digital flows—only 15 years old—now have a larger impact on centuries old goods trade. These impressive figures have ample room to grow considering that one estimate put the US economy as running at about 18 percent of its digital potential.