Ultra-fast broadband access and productivity: Evidence from Italian firms

•We study the impact of ultra-fast broadband (UFB) infrastructures on firm productivity.•We use a novel panel data set for the 2013–2019 period on firms merged with municipality-level information on UFB roll-out.•We deal with the endogeneity of UFB by exploiting the distance between each municipality and the closest backbone node.•Our results show an overall positive impact of UFB on productivity.•We show that full-fiber networks significantly contribute to boosting firm productivity.