Economy
Does Inviting Amazon to Your Hood Really Create Jobs?
A new study calls into question the net benefit of Amazon warehouses for cities.
Each of the 20 cities left angling to be Amazon’s HQ2 are offering up some extreme incentives in hopes of attracting the tech giant to their hood. Newark’s has come to around $7 billion. Montgomery County, Maryland: $5 billion. Atlanta is at $1 billion, and likely to go higher.
On a smaller, but more widespread scale, city leaders have been clamoring for Amazon fulfillment facilities——large warehouses where Amazon Prime products are packaged and shipped. The promise Amazon makes for both types of facilities is the same: That they are going to be a boon for the local economy.