The Last Mile of Broadband: Estimating the Economic Impacts of Connect America Fund Initiative

Abstract

I use a county-level panel dataset from 2013 to 2019 to assess the impacts of a federal program that provided massive subsidies to facilitate the expansion of broadband infrastructure: The Connect America Fund Phase II Program. This program incentivized telecommunications carriers to provided broadband access to high-cost areas in the United States (typically rural and other underserved communities). I study the impact of this "last mile" of broadband and assessing broadband access on local economic employment outcomes. I find that program funding in a geographic area has a positive effect on weekly wages, and potentially has a positive impact on population development.