Amazon’s HQ2 Hunt Was Also About Gov’t-Funded Market Research: New at Reason

There was a good amount of criticism over how public officials slavishly courted Amazon in its hunt for new space for another headquarters with favors and favoritism. No matter: the company merely leveraged its position to muzzle officials of the 20 regions that made the shortlist.

What have gone less discussed are the many indirect ways in which policymakers were unknowingly deputized to bolster Amazon’s bottom line. It really was ingenious on Amazon’s part. They have been able to not only have their pick of the nation’s plum and primed office space, they will be able to monetize the resulting data too. Andrea O’Sullivan explains more.

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