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.

本研究旨在探究美国农业部（USDA）宽带倡议项目（BIP）对项目受助区域企业经营绩效的影响。该项目由2009年《美国复苏与再投资法案》（ARRA）设立，由美国农业部农村发展局下属的农村公用事业服务局（RUS）负责推行，拨款规模达25亿美元，旨在为以农村地区为主的未获得宽带服务及宽带服务不足区域提供拨款与贷款，以支持宽带部署。本研究整合了农村公用事业服务局关于BIP贷款与拨款的项目行政数据、企业经营绩效数据，以及全国企业时间序列（NETS）数据集的特征数据。本研究采用准实验研究设计，将匹配法与双重差分（DiD）估计相结合，以识别BIP项目对企业单位层面就业变化及企业存续状况的因果效应。本研究聚焦于2010年已存续的企业，发现在项目实施后阶段，BIP区域与非BIP区域的企业平均就业规模均出现下滑，但BIP区域企业的就业下滑幅度更为平缓。两组企业就业变化的差异具有统计学显著性，这表明该项目产生了正向影响。对就业影响的分维度拆解分析显示，该项目的正向就业效应主要在都市区县、服务业以及雇佣型企业单位中表现出统计学显著性。研究结果同时表明，相较于非BIP区域的企业，BIP区域企业的倒闭概率更低，且该效应在都市区县与非都市区县、雇佣型与非雇佣型企业以及广义工业部门间存在异质性。