Time poverty, waiting, and broadband adoption: Evidence from the US by gender and income

Despite longer lifespans, many people keep feeling “time poor,” often struggling to complete daily tasks. This challenge is most pronounced among women, who frequently have disproportionate domestic labor responsibilities, and low-income individuals, who frequently lack the resources to outsource time-intensive activities. As time poverty reinforces and perpetuates social inequalities, policies to alleviate it, such as reducing time spent on errands like queuing for goods and services, can play a key role in addressing these disparities. In this context, we explore the potential of expanding broadband adoption as a possible policy solution as it may enable more efficient access to goods and services online, thereby reducing waiting times. Integrating broadband data with diary records from the American Time Use Survey, we construct a 14-year panel dataset (2008–2021) and estimate a fixed effect model. We further examine the impact for broadband by gender and income. Findings contribute to policies intending to alleviate time poverty by demonstrating that living in connected counties reduces time spent waiting for goods and services, with the effect being particularly pronounced among women. However, we also highlight the need for complementary policy measures to fully address persistent disparities. Our results are robust to different model specifications and an instrumental variable approach.