The Transformation of Broadband Demand: From Discretionary Service to Essential Infrastructure (2010-2024)

arXiv:2512.21356v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Has broadband become a necessity good immune to price changes? Using a 15-year panel of 33 European countries (2010–2024) and two-way fixed effects with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors, we document a fundamental transformation in broadband demand. Pre-COVID, Eastern Partnership countries exhibited highly elastic demand ($varepsilon = -0.61$, p$