High-Tech Harvests: How Broadband Internet Access Affects Agricultural Firms

This thesis analyzes the causal impact of increased broadband accessibility on agricultural firm performance. I use 2017 Federal Communications Commission data on broadband access levels and 2019 Business Dynamics Statistics data on agricultural firm performance in order to analyze the impact of county-level broadband Internet access on three economic performance measures: establishment entry rate, establishment exit rate, and net job creation rate. I construct several ordinary least squares regressions that incorporate relevant population control variables, and find statistically significant evidence that broadband is associated with increased establishment entry rates and net job creation in the agricultural sector. Results related to the relationship between broadband access and establishment exit rates are more nuanced, and may be related to technologically-induced job destruction. These findings tentatively support optimism about the effects of expanded Internet access, but further analysis is needed in order to resolve the ongoing debate around the extent of the positive economic impacts of broadband expansion programs