Broadband Internet and social capital q

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Geraci, Andrea; Nardotto, Mattia; Reggiani, Tommaso; Sabatini, Fabio
• 署名单位: European Commission Joint Research Centre; EC JRC ISPRA Site; KU Leuven; Cardiff University; Sapienza University Rome
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104578
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: ICT; Broadband infrastructure; networks; internet; Social capital; Civic capital

摘要

We study the impact of broadband penetration on social capital in the UK. Our empirical strategy exploits a technological feature of the telecommunication infrastructure that generated substantial variation in the quality of Internet access across households. The speed of a domestic connection rapidly decays with the distance of a user's line from the network's node serving the area. Merging information on the topology of the network with geocoded longitudinal data about individual social capital from 1997 to 2017, we show that access to fast Internet caused a significant decline in civic and political engagement. Overall, our results suggest that broadband penetration crowded out several dimensions of social capital. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.