Abstract We aim to quantify the relationship between higher broadband speeds (10 Mbps versus 25 Mbps) and the growth rates in important economic outcomes in U.S. counties including jobs, personal income, and labor earnings. Doing so exposes the potential for severe selection bias in studies of broadband’s economic impact, which is addressed in this study using Coarsened Exact Matching. We also revisit the Crandall, Lehr and Litan (2007) study on broadband’s effect on employment to evaluate the possible impacts of selection bias.
