Amidst COVID-19-related stay-at-home orders, the economy moved largely online and broadband internet became more important than ever. This paper explores the relationship between broadband and employment rates during April and May 2020 in rural U.S. counties. We use two broadband dimensions: infrastructure availability rates and household adoption rates. We use a two-stage least squares approach to address endogeneity and control for socioeconomic, demographic, and pandemic-related factors. Results show broadband availability and wired broadband adoption both had significant, positive impacts on the employment rate. Our findings suggest both broadband adoption and availability may be associated with economic benefits in rural America.

在与 COVID-19 相关的居家令中，经济主要转向在线，宽带互联网变得比以往任何时候都更加重要。本文探讨了 2020 年 4 月和 2020 年 5 月美国农村县的宽带与就业率之间的关系。我们使用两个宽带维度：基础设施可用性率和家庭采用率。我们使用两阶段最小二乘法来解决内生性和控制社会经济、人口和流行病相关因素。结果显示宽带可用性和有线宽带的采用都对就业率产生了显着的积极影响。我们的研究结果表明，宽带的采用和可用性可能与美国农村的经济效益有关。