Abstract We use a county-level panel dataset from 2012 to 2018 to assess the impacts of various state policies on total and rural broadband availability in the United States. The primary dependent variable is the percentage of residents with access to 25 Megabits per second (MBPS) download and 3 MBPS upload speeds via a fixed connection, with alternative specifications considering other aspects of availability such as technology type and competition. We control for the main determinants of Internet availability such as income, education, age, and population density. Our policy variables come from the newly released State Broadband Policy Explorer from the Pew Charitable Trusts and individual contacts from the nationwide State Broadband Leaders Network. Our primary policies of interest are those related to: (1) availability of state-level funding, (2) existence of a state-level broadband office/task force with full-time employees, and (3) restrictions on municipal/cooperative broadband provision. We find a positive and significant impact of state-level funding programs on general (and fiber) broadband availability, and a negative impact of municipal/cooperative restrictions. The findings are similar when the analysis is restricted to the rural portions of counties.

中文翻译：

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国家宽带政策：对可用性的影响

摘要 我们使用 2012 年至 2018 年的县级面板数据集来评估各种州政策对美国总体和农村宽带可用性的影响。主要因变量是通过固定连接访问每秒 25 兆位 (MBPS) 下载和 3 MBPS 上传速度的居民百分比，以及考虑其他可用性方面的替代规范，例如技术类型和竞争。我们控制互联网可用性的主要决定因素，例如收入、教育、年龄和人口密度。我们的政策变量来自皮尤慈善信托基金新发布的州宽带政策浏览器和全国州宽带领导网络的个人联系人。我们感兴趣的主要政策与以下方面有关：(1) 州级资金的可用性，(2) 存在具有全职员工的州级宽带办公室/工作组，以及 (3) 对市政/合作宽带提供的限制。我们发现州级资助计划对一般（和光纤）宽带可用性产生积极而显着的影响，以及市政/合作限制的消极影响。当分析仅限于县的农村部分时，结果是相似的。