It’s the five-year anniversary of the 2009 stimulus package. I’ve done a slew of empirical research on the stimulus in those years from predicting in advance that its impact would be small to estimating afterwards that its impact was small. I also wrote over 25 posts on the subject on Economics One, which are listed below with links. Some posts provide new evidence. Others summarize my research with John Cogan and Volker Wieland, or refer to congressional testimony. Still others are about debates with Alan Blinder, Paul Krugman, Christina Romer, Larry Summers, and Mark Zandi. As a whole the findings summarized here provide evidence that the stimulus was not successful in jump-starting the economy or in stimulating sustained growth. Similar results were found in stimulus packages in the 1970s. Keeping a record may help us remember the lessons so we don’t do it again next time.
Valuable Dissent to the Transportation Research Board’s Special Stimulus Report, Jan 18, 2014
New Model Validation of Stimulus Impacts, Apr 16, 2012
More Debates about the Stimulus Debate, Mar 5, 2012
Debating Stimulus and Harvard and Stanford, Mar 2, 2012
Not More of the Same Model Simulations!, Sep 25, 2011
Two Congressional Hearings on the Second Stimulus and Alternatives, Sep 14, 2011
Don’t Stay the Course, Sep 7, 2011
No Near-Consensus Among Economists for Another Stimulus Package, Aug 16, 2011
No, A Bigger Stimulus Would Not Have Worked Either, Jul 4, 2011
How to Resolve the Stimulus Debate: Use Data, Not the Same Models Over Again, Jul, 2011
Why the Stimulus Failed to Boost Infrastructure in the US: A Comparison With China, Mar 25, 2011
The Empty Chairs at the ARRA Hearing, Feb 16, 2011
Models Used for Policy Should Reflect Recent Experience, But Do They? Dec 29, 2010
Stimulus Math: Many Multiples of Nothing is Still Nothing, Dec 9, 2010
More Evidence on Why the Stimulus Didn’t Work, Oct 30, 2010
TV Fiscal Stimulus Debate Reveals Some Agreement, Jul 31, 2010
More on the Blinder-Zandi Working Paper on the Crisis, Jul 29, 2010
Latest Data Continue To Show Little Impact of Government Stimulus on GDP, May 1, 2010
Macro Model Disagreements and Reality, Feb 22, 2010
Stimulus Anniversary Blog, Feb 17, 2010
One Year Later and More Evidence that the Stimulus is Not Working, Feb 3, 2010
From Fiscal Stimulus and Fiscal Anti-Stimulus, Jan 12, 2010
Measuring the Impact of the Stimulus Package with Economic Models, Dec 30, 2009
Jobs saved: PR or Fact? Nov 6, 2009
National Accounts Show Stimulus Did Not Fuel GDP Growth, Oct 30, 2009
Despite claims, data continue to show small impact of stimulus, Oct 24, 2009
Is the Stimulus Working? Sep 20, 2009
Economics One 