Broadband Speed and Unemployment Rates: Data and Measurement Issues
We examine the effects of broadband speed on county unemployment rates in Tennessee. We merge the older National Broadband Map dataset and the newer Federal Communications Commission dataset in lengthening our broadband access data over the period 2011-2015. Extending the dataset improves the precision of the estimates. Our panel regressions control for potential selection bias and reverse causality and show that broadband speed matters: unemployment rates are about 0.26 percentage points lower in counties with high speeds compared to counties with low speeds.
