The economic impact of mobile broadband speed

Based on panel data of 116 countries in 2014-2019, this paper investigates the association between mobile broadband speed and labor productivity. It finds no robust contemporaneous relationship for the total sample, but there is a significant and robust association when a one-year lag of mobile broadband speed is introduced. The interpretation of the results is that a 10 percent increase in mobile broadband speed in period t-1 is associated with 0.2 percent increase in labor productivity, ceteris paribus. The results are only robust for non-OECD and low-income countries, respectively.