The effect of broadband infrastructure on entrepreneurial activities : the case of Germany

This paper investigates whether the local infrastructure favours entrepreneurial activities. Besides the physical and knowledge infrastructure we take into account a county’s broadband availability by building an index which accounts for county-related specificities. We find that broadband availability fosters entrepreneurial activities particularly in high-tech sectors for which efficient ways of knowledge transfer is crucial. -- Broadband provision ; physical and knowledge infrastructure ; local entrepreneurial activities