"Why Do Tech Companies Love Economists So Much?"

Academic economists have worked for tech companies since around 2000 and in the last 10 years the trickle has turned into a river creating a major new career path for economics PhDs as well as other data science disciplines. Today Amazon has over 450 PhD economists working all across the company. A key differentiator relative to other types of data scientists is that economists are particularly effective at addressing some of the most ambiguous and strategic challenges facing the company. The presentation will provide an overview of some of the unique ways in which tech economists are adding value for companies, along with some specific case studies of how economics is addressing important, interesting and impactful problems for Amazon.