The Impact of Investment on Competition: Evidence from Telecommunications

In this thesis, I research how competition changes with changing technology with data from the internet service industry. Using data collected by web scraping from both Sparklight and CenturyLink, I examine the interaction between these firms in Boise and Meridian, Idaho. I construct a measure of fiber prevalence at each household by calculating a weighted average of a binary variable for whether or not each of the surrounding households has fiber access from CenturyLink. I then use this measure to predict the offer made to each household by Sparklight, through logistic regression, finding that both having fiber yourself and living in an area with lots of fiber make it more likely that you receive a cheaper offer from Sparklight, the firm which competes with CenturyLink’s fiber network. I interpret this as an external benefit of fiber, adding another benefit of fiber internet to the existing literature.Bachelor of Scienc