How Broadband Funding Drives Growth in Key Industries

Table of Links

Abstract and Introduction

2. Literature Review

2.1 Reviewing Broadband Infrastructure’s Impact on the Economy

2.2 Previous Research into IO Modeling of Broadband Investment

2.3 Context of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act through Previous Research

3. Methods and 3.1 Leontief Input-Output (IO) Modeling

3.2 Ghosh Supply-Side Assessment Methods for Infrastructure

3.3 Data and Application

4. Results and 4.1 To what extent does the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocate funding to unconnected communities in need?

4.2 What are the GDP impacts of the three funding programs within the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law?

4.3 How are the supply chain linkages affected by allocations from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law?

5. Discussion

5.1 To what extent does the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocate funding to unconnected communities in need?

5.2 What are the GDP impacts of the three funding programs within the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law?

5.3 How are supply chain linkages affected by allocations from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law?"

Conclusion

Acknowledgements and References

5.3 How are supply chain linkages affected by allocations from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law?

Undertaking a key linkage analysis of the industrial sectors most affected from this investment, we quantify the impacts on both upstream and downstream industries (depending on whether the investment is targeted at the supply-side or demand-side). The information sector (NAICS 51) is expected to grow the most, by as much as US $16.9 billion, compared to all other industries. This growth is distinguished by up to $9.06 billion (53.6%) in downstream impact and $7.84 billion (46.4%) in upstream impact. The BIL investment would see this sector increase by over 0.15% over the next five years, due to greater reliance on Internet services, thanks to expanded access to wireline broadband.

The sector with the second-largest growth is estimated to be the Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector (NAICS 54). Growing by as much as $11.9 billion, through $7.65 billion downstream (64.3%) and $4.29 billion upstream (36.1%). As businesses and economies gain access to wireline broadband and high-speed Internet, they can use these services to organize and communicate, contributing to the upstream effects. The large downstream quantity is likely because of broadband’s dependency on this sector for development and service.

Interestingly, in sectors such as Retail Trade (NAICS 44-45, $2.51 billion) and Health Care and Social Assistance (NAICS 62, $2.077 billion), downstream effects ($2.45 billion, 97.7% and $2.08 billion, 99.8%, respectively) outweigh the upstream effects ($0.065 billion, 0.03% and $.0034 billion, 0.163%, respectively), possibly because these industries are more reliant on broadband as a production input. Even though post-COVID trends suggest consumers are generally returning to physical brick-and-mortar stores, more consumers now value the access and convenience of online retail and purchasing, so the retail industry is becoming increasingly reliant on broadband connectivity to make sales (Brüggemann & Olbrich, 2023; Inoue & Todo, 2023; Sen et al., 2023). Likewise, Health Care is also becoming more reliant on broadband for record storage and interhospital communication. The growth in these sectors implies that they stand to gain significantly more from an increased availability of broadband rather than the increased demand for broadband.

The opposite is true for the Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation Services (NAICS 71), a sector that is affected more by the upstream effect ($0.843 billion, 80.3%) rather than the downstream ($0.207 billion, 19.7%). As consumers connect to new or faster broadband, they also connect to online content sources. However, instead of the Entertainment industry relying on broadband, the consumer utilizes these services to access content. Therefore, it is reflected in the demand-side of the model rather than the supply-side, as Entertainment benefits more from the increased demand for broadband rather than from its increased availability. A similar rationale is likely the cause for the opposite split in the Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting sector (NAICS 11, $.296 billion), which is also the sector that is projected to grow the least, with the downstream impact ($0.250 billion, 84.6%) far outweighing the upstream impact ($0.046 billion, 15.4%).

In general, the results we find here suggest that the most interconnected industries are projected to see the largest increase in growth from the investment programs, such as the Information sector (NAICS 51, $16.9 billion) and Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (NAICS 54, $11.9 billion).