Broadband and Firm Location: Some answers to relevant policy and research issues using meta-analysis

Abstract

We provide a quantitative literature review on broadband and firm location. While most previous works find that broadband has positive effects on firm location, the impact is very heterogeneous across studies. We examine the role of three categories of variables (context, methodological choices and publication characteristics) in explaining the variation in previous estimates. The results indicate that broadband effects are significantly more beneficial in urban areas, whereas lesser effects are found for finance, real estate and insurance. Methodological settings, and particularly the choice of the level of analysis, of control variables and of the econometric estimator, also play a significant role in explaining the differences in previous estimates. These results are then discussed to find some answers to relevant policy and research issues.

When, where, and for what industries does broadband foster establishment births?

“…Alternatively, classifying municipalities according to density confirms that broadband access has little effect in the least densely populated areas 23 . This result is in line with the literature comparing the effects of broadband between urban and rural areas, and concludes that broadband availability is more beneficial for urban areas (Conley & Whitacre, 2016; Duvivier, 2019).…”

“…In some models, the latter are further disaggregated into two categories: finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE); and creative and business services. This distinction, which is quite familiar in the literature (Shearmur & Alvergne, 2002), allows us to consider that broadband could have varying effects on these two different categories of HOS (Duvivier, 2019).…”

Digital entrepreneurship indicator (DEI): an analysis of the case of the greater Paris metropolitan area

“…Audretsch and Belitski ( 2017 ) find that connectivity and internet access improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem. In fact, a positive link exists between broadband and firm location, especially in urban areas and in firms making advanced use of the internet (e-commerce, customer relationship management, company resource planning) (Duvivier 2019 ; Duvivier et al 2021 ). Firm location theory considers that broadband access can enhance the location-specific profitability of firms in many ways.…”

À qui profite la fibre ? Estimation des besoins en très haut débit et déploiement de la fibre optique en France

“…Si la littérature en économie a largement documenté les bénéfices attendus du développement du haut débit pour les entreprises, les citoyens et les administrations, les travaux ayant spécifiquement étudié les effets du très haut débit et de la fibre optique sont moins nombreux. D'une manière générale, les preuves causales de ces effets sont difficiles à établir (Duvivier, 2019), à fortiori à des niveaux d'analyse agrégés où se mêlent de multiples facteurs explicatifs. Pour autant, un nombre croissant de travaux tend à montrer l'existence d'effets d'entrainement du très haut débit sur l'attractivité des territoires (Duvivier et al, 2018;Hasbi, 2020), l'emploi (Lapointe, 2015) ou même la réussite scolaire (Grimes & Townsend, 2018).…”