Speaker: Marco Giacoletti (Notre Dame)

Paper Title: Subsidizing the Cloud: U.S. State Incentives to Data Centers (Joint with Antonio Gargano)

Date: Wednesday 6th/May/2026 at 9:00 AM Eastern Time

Abstract: Over the past two decades, many U.S. states have introduced tax incentives to attract data center investment. We provide causal evidence that these incentives impact state-level data center construction. However, effects are concentrated among large, high-power facilities used for cloud computing and, more recently, large language models. Smaller data centers remain largely unaffected. Using a quantitative model, we show that incentives significantly increase project net present value and shift the geographic distribution of hyperscale development across states. However, we find no clear empirical evidence that data centers stimulate local tech employment growth.

Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_AtC1A8uHQ9O1SmwnmyDSQw#/registration