This piece ran in the Washington Business Journal in the Jan. 26, 2018 edition. The graphic was prepared by the Washington Business Journal using data supplied by […]

Amazon is considering three jurisdictions in the Washington region for its second headquarters (HQ2): the District of Columbia, Montgomery County, MD, and Northern Virginia, which included proposals from the city of Alexandria, and the counties of Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun. Amazon’s decision will be a pragmatic one of matching its needs and preferences with the metropolitan area’s labor force, its infrastructure, its culture, and the attractiveness of the incentives the jurisdiction offers. Most bidders will accordingly seek to highlight their highly educated STEM workforce, their university system, their subways, highways, and airports, as well as their quality-of-life, and their culture of entrepreneurialism. Yet, the question of how well matched these features of an economy are to Amazon’s business activity, rather than any average technology-oriented company requires a more nuanced discussion.