Broadband Infrastructure and Economic Growth

Czernich, Nina; Falck, Oliver; Kretschmer, Tobias und Wößmann, Ludger (2011): Broadband Infrastructure and Economic Growth. In: Economic Journal, Bd. 121, Nr. 552: S. 505-532

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 raised 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.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Betriebswirtschaft > Institut für Strategie, Technologie und Organisation ; Volkswirtschaft ; Volkswirtschaft > Lehrstühle > CESifo-Professur für Empirische Innovationsökonomik
• Themengebiete: 300 Sozialwissenschaften > 330 Wirtschaft
• Sprache: Englisch