The economic impact of mobile broadband speed

Abstract

Based on panel data of 116 countries in 2014–2019, this paper investigates the association between mobile broadband speed and labor productivity. It finds no robust contemporaneous relationship for the total sample, but there is a significant and robust association when a one-year lag of mobile broadband speed is introduced. The interpretation of the results is that a 10 percent increase in mobile broadband speed in period t-1 is associated with 0.2 percent increase in labor productivity, ceteris paribus. The results are only robust for non-OECD and low-income countries, respectively.

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