Broadband access has been a revolution in the technology sector, while telecommuting has gained enormous relevance over time, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines the economic impact of telecommuting and broadband access on economic growth and establish a comparison to analyse which one is a better GDP proxy.

This study is based on data from 17 EU countries for the period 2010-2022. Using two panel regression models based in the Cobb-Douglas function, using a digital approach for the TFP, and analysing four different cases in which time and country fixed effects are included or excluded, the results show that broadband access has a positive impact on GDP, even being insignificant in some of the cases analysed, while telecommuting has positive and negative effects depending on its frequency.

The results show that time fixed effects have a high impact on the explanatory variables, so the author concludes that the COVID-19 pandemic played an essential role in explaining the changes and flows of GDP during 2020 and subsequent years.