Perspective
What to Do About HQ2
Ask any of these urban and economic policy experts, they’ll tell you the escalating bidding war to court Amazon HQ2 is dangerous. They have different ideas about what to do about it.
With every passing day, the economic incentives some local leaders are offering Amazon in a fierce competition to lure the company’s second headquarters have gotten more extreme. City leaders and other defenders of unfettered bidding for companies argue the incentives are a necessary and important part of attracting jobs.
But an increasing number of urban and economic policy experts have had enough. The public competition Amazon has set up, they say, is not just damaging to whatever city wins HQ2 and owes Amazon incentives that might cost a city more than it gains. It is setting a new norm for what governments are expected to offer companies in the pursuit of jobs.