Can affordable internet increase employment opportunities for low-income workers? Evidence from the Affordable Connectivity Program

This study investigates the labor market impacts of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), the largest U.S. initiative to date aimed at reducing income-based disparities in Internet access. We assess ACP’s effects on labor force participation and employment and test the hypothesis that a key impact mechanism is the expansion of remote work opportunities for program recipients. Using large-scale national datasets, we also explore heterogeneity in program effects by gender, occupation, and connection type (fixed vs. mobile). The analysis employs two complementary empirical strategies: (1) difference-in-differences estimators based on repeated cross-sectional data from the American Community Survey for 2016–2023 (N ≈ 29.8 million), and (2) augmented inverse propensity weighting (AIPW) models using cross-sectional data from the 2023 Current Population Survey (N = 35,561). The results provide robust evidence that ACP participation is associated with improved labor market outcomes, particularly among women and individuals with high-speed residential connections. These gains appear to be driven, in part, by increases in both the incidence and intensity of remote work. The findings suggest that a narrow focus on first-level adoption outcomes underestimates the broader socioeconomic benefits of affordable broadband initiatives. Theoretically, they indicate that the so-called Matthew effect – whereby digitization amplifies existing social inequalities – is not inevitable and can be partially offset by well-designed, targeted policy interventions.