ECON slides

“Summarize the conflicts in this CBC article: Alberta wants to become an AI data centre hub, but this rural county just rejected a big proposal: “

Use the attached slides to come up with a summary slide + What might hinder negotiations (tie in concepts about property rights). And one side about postive externalaties.

Don’t have to actually do all 7 slides but make sure there are notes/ speaking notes for each slide and a small summary of everything

Some idea’s

What might hinder Coasian negotiations? (Property-rights perspective)

• High transaction costs
• Many affected parties (residents, county, province, developer, environmental groups)
• Costly coordination, bargaining, and enforcement
• Holdout and free-rider problems among residents
• Unclear or contested property rights
• Uncertainty over who holds the relevant rights (land use, water use, environmental quality, rural amenities)
• Overlapping authority between municipal and provincial governments
• Incentives to shift conflict into political/regulatory arenas instead of bargaining
• Common-pool resource concerns
• Shared resources (e.g., water, electricity capacity) create fears of overuse
• Individuals worry others will capture benefits while costs are spread
• Common-pool conflicts increase opposition and reduce willingness to negotiate
• 06_Property Rights
• Distributional conflict
• Benefits (jobs, economic growth) are broad, but costs are localized
• Difficulty agreeing on compensation levels
• Non-market losses (rural character, noise, visual impacts) are hard to value
• Information asymmetry and uncertainty
• Uncertainty about long-term environmental impacts, resource use, or project expansion
• Residents may distrust developer projections
• Risk of irreversible impacts increases resistance
• Large number of heterogeneous preferences
• Different residents value impacts differently
• Hard to reach unanimous or representative agreement
• Political decision-making constraints
• Land-use decisions made through public hearings and council votes rather than private contracts
• Strategic lobbying and median-voter dynamics replace bargaining
• Commitment and enforcement problems
• Concerns that compensation agreements or usage limits wont be enforced long term
• High monitoring and legal costs
• Time and legal uncertainty
• Lengthy approval processes and potential litigation raise negotiation costs
• Equity and fairness concerns
• Perceptions that local communities bear costs while outsiders receive most benefits reduce willingness to bargain

Positive externalities (from the proposed data centre)

• Local job creation (construction and operations)
• Increased local business activity (restaurants, services, suppliers)
• Higher property tax revenue for the county
• Infrastructure improvements (roads, power, broadband capacity)
• Spillover benefits to nearby businesses (tech services, maintenance, logistics)
• Attraction of additional investment and related tech firms (cluster effects)
• Contribution to provincial economic diversification beyond oil and gas
• Strengthening Albertas position as an AI and data-centre hub
• Knowledge and skill spillovers to the local labour market
• Increased demand for local contractors and trades
• Potential improvements to regional electricity and grid reliability from upgrades
• Broader economic growth benefits that extend beyond the immediate project area
• Enhanced reputation of the region for innovation and technology investment