Study: Broadband does indeed help local economies

Link to January 14 Network World post.

Excerpt: U.S. broadband policy in recent months has been driven by a widely held assumption that the availability of broadband in an area will help improve the economy. A study released Wednesday puts some scholarship behind that assumption, with the author saying that broadband indeed has economic benefits.

Areas that moved from having no broadband to having between one and three service providers between 1999 and 2006 saw employment growth that was 6.4 percent higher than areas without broadband, said the study. In recent months, there's been "unprecedented" government support for broadband as an economic stimulus mechanism, said study author Jed Kolko, associate director and research fellow at Public Policy Institute of California.

Link to "Does Broadband Boost Local Economic Development?" by Jed Kolko.