Discounting Telephone Service : An Examination of Participation in the Lifeline Assistance Program Using Panel Data

This paper examines a unique public assistance program, the Lifeline Assistance Program, to consider factors that cause people to not participate in a program that provides them with financial benefits. Lifeline is a nationwide program created by the Federal Communications Commission to provide price discounts to low-income telephone subscribers. Recently there has been concern that program participation rates are too low. Using county-level data from Florida, we consider reasons why a large number of Floridians who qualify for the program are not signing up. We find that access to alternative modes of communications, such as mobile phones, decrease participation. We also find that certain demographic factors affect participation in the program, and that significant discrepancies in participation exist across counties. Furthermore, we find that the reason for these cross-county discrepancies appears to be county specific rather than telecom-carrier specific