The Socioeconomic Impacts of Amazon Investments on local communities

New research from Oxford Economics finds that the opening of Amazon fulfilment centers lifts up local communities by increasing economic vitality while reducing hardship

Oxford Economics has undertaken a new research programme to shed new light on the impacts of how a new Amazon fulfilment center can help transform a host community.

The independent analysis of a large number of U.S. counties where Amazon added at least 1,000 jobs in a single year found that, five years later, those counties experienced gains compared to counties without such investments. These gains included increased new business formation, lower unemployment rates, higher weekly wages, higher rates of labor force participation and reduced reliance on Medicaid assistance.

This research demonstrates that large businesses like Amazon can significantly contribute to the well-being of the communities they enter. Furthermore, our findings show that these benefits are not short-lived but continue to grow over time.

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The experts behind the research

Laurence Wilse-Samson

Lead Economist, Economic Impact

Laurence Wilse-Samson

Lead Economist, Economic Impact

Laurence is a Lead Economist in the economic consulting team in New York. He was previously Director of Policy Research and Economics at Bird, the electric scooter company. He has extensive experience performing economic modeling, research and analysis for private and public organizations and has worked doing economic analysis for litigation consulting at companies in the US and UK. He has also lectured at the University of Johannesburg, the University of Cape Town, and NYU. He has a PhD in economics from Columbia University.
Luke Miller

Head of Data Science and Machine Learning for EI, Economic Impact

Luke Miller

Head of Data Science and Machine Learning for EI, Economic Impact

Luke leads the Data Science and Machine Learning team across Economic Impact at OE with over 7 years' experience working as a professional econometrician. He holds extensive experience building and deploying econometric models, with a focus on leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies.
Avantika Tandon

Assistant Economist, Economic Impact

Avantika Tandon

Assistant Economist, Economic Impact

Avantika is an Assistant Economist on the U.S. Economic Impact team. Before pursuing her master’s degree, she worked as a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Boston College, focusing on retirement research. She holds a Master’s degree in Quantitative Economics from NYU and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Psychology from Boston University.
Boubacar Drame

Head of Econometrics Methods

Boubacar Drame

Head of Econometrics Methods

Boubacar Drame is Head of Econometrics Methods at Oxford Economics. He has been with the OE for nearly right years. Prior to this, he was Head Of Econometrics at PwC. He holds extensive experience in building econometric models for private sector clients as well as various government institutions, both in the UK and overseas.

Before joining PwC, Boubacar was awarded the Clive Granger Scholarship to pursue a PhD programme in Econometrics at Nottingham University specialising in time series econometrics. During his PhD, Boubacar worked as a teaching assistant for the MSc in Econometrics and Advance Macroeconomics classes. Boubacar holds an MSc in Econometrics from Nottingham University with distinction, and MSc in Economics from the LSE and a degree in Economics and Management from Oxford Brookes University where I was awarded both the Frank Sharegold Prize for best graduate students in economics and the Mathematics Prize for achieving a perfect score.
Elchin Mustafayev

Senior Econometrician

Elchin Mustafayev

Senior Econometrician

Joined Oxford Economics in July 2023; previously Senior Economist, Modelling Division, Central Bankof Azerbaijan. He holds extensive experience in building comprehensive macro-econometric modelsfor forecasting, causal inference and policy evaluations. Recent work includes building a dynamicmicrosimulation framework to evaluate welfare reforms and labour-market responses. He previouslyserved in the modelling division of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan. Elchin holds a Ph.D. in Economicsfrom the University of Nottingham.