DOES STATE AID FOR BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT IN RURAL AREAS CLOSE THE DIGITAL AND ECONOMIC DIVIDE?

We evaluate the impact of a major European state aid programme for broadband deployment applied to rural areas in the German state of Bavaria in the years 2010 and 2011. We find that aided municipalities have—depending on quality— between 16.8 and 23.2 percentage points higher broadband coverage than non-aided municipalities. This increase in broadband coverage closes the digital divide but does not contribute to a further closing of the economic divide in the form of creating new jobs.