Lorien Sabatino

Polytechnic University of Turin

will give a presentation on:

Fast Internet and Firm Creation:
Evidence from Italy

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide new evidence on the impact of ultra-fast broadband investment on local growth, and in particular on local new business establishment. We leverage on a unique dataset collecting municipality-level ultra-fast broadband deployment data for the period 2013-2018 matched with granular information on the number of both new and closing businesses for 15 industrial sectors.  We exploit the staggered roll-out of fiber-based ultra-fast broadband networks starting from 2015. We deal with the endogeneity of broadband diffusion by exploiting the distance between each municipality and the closest central office equipped with "last mile" device. Our preliminary results show that the introduction of ultra-fast broadband technology reduces both new firm establishment and firm exit.