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Evaluating the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's BTOP on broadband adoption

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  • Hauge
  • Prieger

Abstract

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) spent $4.7 billion during 2009-2013 to, inter alia , increase broadband adoption in underserved communities. We characterize the BTOP grants and examine the impact of the awards on broadband adoption. Econometric specifications controlling for award endogeneity related to observed and unobserved county-level factors find that spending is apparently associated with increased broadband adoption. Further investigation, however, reveals that the impacts of spending are nonlinear and even nonmonotonic over the range of county-level BTOP spending in the data. Controlling for trends to reduce the potential for spurious correlation between spending and outcomes removes most of the significance of the results. We conclude with three lessons for policymakers derived from the uncertain outcomes of BTOP spending found in our exploration.

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  • Hauge & Prieger, 2015. "Evaluating the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's BTOP on broadband adoption," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(60), pages 6553-6579, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:47:y:2015:i:60:p:6553-6579
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2015.1080810
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    Cited by:

    1. Bauer, Anahid & Feir, Donn. L. & Gregg, Matthew T., 2022. "The tribal digital divide: Extent and Explanations," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(9).
    2. Whitacre, Brian & Gallardo, Roberto, 2020. "State broadband policy: Impacts on availability," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(9).
    3. Liu, Chun & Wang, Lian, 2021. "Who is left behind? Exploring the characteristics of China's broadband non-adopting families," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9).
    4. Matteucci, Nicola, 2019. "The EU State aid policy for broadband: An evaluation of the Italian experience with first generation networks," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(9).
    5. Bai, Yang & Wang, Ryan Yang & Jayakar, Krishna, 2022. "What $2.5 billion can buy: The effect of the Broadband Initiatives Program on farm productivity," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(7).
    6. Chang, Jieun, 2021. "Broadband technology opportunities program public computer center grants and residential broadband adoption," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(8).
    7. Deller, Steven & Whitacre, Brian, 2018. "Broadband’s Relationship to Rural Housing Values," Staff Paper Series 591, University of Wisconsin, Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    8. Manlove, Jacob & Whitacre, Brian, 2019. "An evaluation of the Connected Nation broadband adoption program," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1-1.
    9. Laura Robinson & Jeremy Schulz & Matías Dodel & Teresa Correa & Eduardo Villanueva-Mansilla & Sayonara Leal & Claudia Magallanes-Blanco & Leandro Rodriguez-Medina & Hopeton S. Dunn & Lloyd Levine & Ro, 2020. "Digital Inclusion Across the Americas and Caribbean," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 244-259.
    10. Lee, Hyun Ji & Whitacre, Brian, 2017. "Estimating willingness-to-pay for broadband attributes among low-income consumers: Results from two FCC lifeline pilot projects," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 769-780.
    11. Pender, John & Goldstein, Joshua & Mahoney-Nair, Devika, 2022. "Impacts of the Broadband Initiatives Program on broadband adoption and home telework," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(8).
    12. Gerli, Paolo & Whalley, Jason, 2018. "Fibre to the countryside: A comparison of public and community initiatives in the UK," 29th European Regional ITS Conference, Trento 2018 184941, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    13. Biedny, Christina & Whitacre, Brian & Gallardo, Roberto, 2022. "Do ‘dig once’ and permitting policies improve fiber availability?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5).

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