Broadband Internet and social capital
We study how the diffusion of broadband Internet affects social capital using two data
sets from the UK. Our empirical strategy exploits the fact that broadband access has long
depended on customers’ position in the voice telecommunication infrastructure that was
designed in the 1930s. The actual speed of an Internet connection, in fact, rapidly decays
with the distance of the dwelling from the specific node of the network serving its area.
Merging unique information about the topology of the voice network with geocoded
longitudinal data about individual social capital, we show that access to broadband Internet
caused a significant decline in forms of offline interaction and civic engagement. Overall,
our results suggest that broadband penetration substantially crowded out several aspects
of social capital