Delivering E-Nequalities: The Hidden Costs of Amazon and Logistics Development for Vulnerable Communities

As e-commerce has rapidly expanded worldwide, reshaping global logistics, municipalities facing economic decline have increasingly turned to logistics-led development strategies as a pathway to economic revitalisation. Yet, the sector’s local socio-environmental impacts remain understudied. This paper analyses Amazon’s logistics expansion in Italy to identify the predictors of facility location and the resulting local impacts. Using municipal-level data from 2006 to 2023, the analysis reveals that Amazon disproportionately locates in disadvantaged municipalities characterised by structural economic challenges and weak governance. Staggered Difference-in-Differences estimates show that, following facility openings, meaningful local development or welfare gains fail to materialise, whether in terms of employment, average earnings or fiscal performances. On the contrary, they exacerbate local inequalities and environmental pressures, notably air pollutants concentrations. The findings illustrate how Logistics Development and Amazon’s location strategies reproduce and reinforce existing socio-spatial disparities, concentrating economic and environmental burdens in already vulnerable communities. These results raise critical questions about the sustainability of local development paths shaped by global logistics actors.