ECIN Replication Package for "Broadband and Rural Development: Impacts of the USDA Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) on Saving and Creating Jobs"

We study the impact of the USDA’s Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) on
business outcomes in program recipient areas. The BIP was established by the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 and implemented by the
Rural Utilities Service (RUS) of the USDA Rural Development Mission Area. It
was a $2.5 billion program (appropriations) that provided grants and loans to
support broadband provision in unserved and underserved areas that were
primarily rural. This research combines RUS program administrative data on BIP
loans and grants and business outcomes and attributes data from the National
Establishment Time Series (NETS) data. We use a quasi-experimental research
design that combines matching with difference-in-differences (DiD) estimation
to identify the causal effect of the BIP program on employment change at the
establishment level and on business survival. Focusing on businesses that
already existed in 2010, we find that the average employment decreased in both
BIP and non-BIP area businesses during the post-program period, but the decline
was slower for businesses in BIP areas. The statistical significance of the
differences in employment change between the two groups indicates a positive
impact of the program. A disaggregated view of the employment impacts show that
the positive employment impact is mainly found to be statistically significant
in metro counties, the service sector, and employer establishments. Results
also show that businesses in BIP areas were less likely to fail compared to
businesses in non-BIP areas and this effect is found to be different across
metro/nonmetro counties, employer vs. nonemployer businesses, and broad
industrial sectors.