Digital economic activity and its impact on local opportunity

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. We analyzed monthly data on over 20 million domain name hosts/websites in the US from 2018 to 2020, and our results show the density of domain name hosts positively predicts community economic prosperity. Interactions between the density of these hosts and broadband subscriptions also predict lower monthly unemployment rates over time, including after the March 2020 pandemic. Commercial data can improve our understanding of broadband's impacts, including its potential for inclusive growth in diverse communities.