The AI Boomtown: The Hidden Tradeoffs of Hosting a Data Center

This episode explores a study uncovering "compensatory spillovers," where anti-poverty programs inadvertently disadvantage neighboring communities not receiving aid. It discusses how traditional intervention evaluations often fail to account for these systemic effects, leading to a skewed understanding of policy effectiveness. Listeners will learn about the challenges of identifying such negative spillovers and the necessity of considering broader, interconnected impacts in program design.