Abstract Differences in access to high-speed broadband between urban and rural locations are known as the ‘digital divide’. Governments around the world have committed to spending considerable amounts of money to alleviate disparities in broadband infrastructure. However, to date, there is limited causal evidence for broadband and firm performance with even less of an understanding on whether the effects are distinct between firms located in urban versus rural localities. In this article, we exploit geographical discontinuities in broadband availability across the UK to capture the causal effects on firms on both sides of this divide. We find for both urban and rural firms that broadband causes an increase in their size, but not labor productivity. In addition, we find evidence that these size effects are strongest for urban firms, but for both urban and rural firms, the effects are concentrated in knowledge-intensive industries.

中文翻译：

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（模糊的）数字鸿沟：普遍宽带对公司业绩的影响

摘要 城市和农村地区在高速宽带接入方面的差异被称为“数字鸿沟”。世界各国政府已承诺投入大量资金来缓解宽带基础设施方面的差距。然而，迄今为止，宽带和公司业绩的因果证据有限，对于位于城市和农村地区的公司之间的影响是否不同，人们甚至更缺乏了解。在本文中，我们利用英国各地宽带可用性的地理不连续性来捕捉这一鸿沟两边公司的因果关系。我们发现，对于城市和农村公司来说，宽带会导致其规模增加，但不会增加劳动生产率。此外，我们发现证据表明，这些规模效应对城市公司来说最强，