Ultra-broadband investment and economic resilience: Evidence from the Covid-19 pandemic

IF 5.9 2区管理学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Telecommunications Policy Pub Date : 2023-03-01 DOI:10.1016/j.telpol.2022.102480

Laura Abrardi , Lorien Sabatino

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

We study the role of ultra-broadband infrastructures in reducing the economic recession caused by the 2020 pandemic. We exploit the variation in GDP and employment that happened between 2019 and 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, and we investigate whether UBB investments had an impact on economic resilience. We use micro-level data on UBB exposure in 2019 matched with municipality-level information on local GDP and employment levels based on tax declarations for the period 2019–2020. We address the endogeneity between UBB and local income by exploiting the distance from the closest backbone node of the upstream telecommunication network. We find that exposure to UBB mitigates the negative effect of the pandemic on local employment. One additional year of UBB exposure increases local employment by 1.3 percentage points. The effect is stronger in areas hit more severely by the pandemic, thus confirming the role of advanced broadband infrastructures on the economic resilience from negative shocks.

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超宽带投资与经济韧性:来自2019冠状病毒病大流行的证据

我们研究了超宽带基础设施在减少2020年疫情造成的经济衰退方面的作用。我们利用2019年至2020年期间由于新冠肺炎疫情爆发而发生的GDP和就业变化，并调查UBB投资是否对经济韧性产生影响。我们使用了2019年UBB暴露的微观数据，以及基于2019-2020年纳税申报的当地GDP和就业水平的市级信息。我们通过利用与上游电信网络最近骨干节点的距离来解决UBB与当地收入之间的内生性问题。我们发现，接触UBB可以减轻疫情对当地就业的负面影响。UBB风险敞口再增加一年，当地就业率将增加1.3个百分点。在受疫情影响更严重的地区，这种影响更大，从而证实了先进的宽带基础设施对经济抵御负面冲击的作用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Telecommunications Policy 工程技术-电信学

CiteScore

10.80

自引率

12.50%

发文量

122

审稿时长

38 days

期刊介绍： Telecommunications Policy is concerned with the impact of digitalization in the economy and society. The journal is multidisciplinary, encompassing conceptual, theoretical and empirical studies, quantitative as well as qualitative. The scope includes policy, regulation, and governance; big data, artificial intelligence and data science; new and traditional sectors encompassing new media and the platform economy; management, entrepreneurship, innovation and use. Contributions may explore these topics at national, regional and international levels, including issues confronting both developed and developing countries. The papers accepted by the journal meet high standards of analytical rigor and policy relevance.