Effective Stimulus: Food Stamps vs. Tax Cuts

JOSH BIVENS
Bivens is an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, which has posted information contrasting the economic benefits of various stimulus provisions, per dollar spent:

Food stamps: $1.73
Extend unemployment benefits: $1.64
Infrastructure spending: $1.59
Aid to states: $1.36

In contrast:

Make dividend and capital
gains tax cuts permanent: $0.37
Corporate tax cuts: $0.30
Make Bush tax cuts permanent: $0.29

Data based on Moody’s Economy.com.

See “A meaningful stimulus for Main Street.”

Bivens is author of Everybody Wins, Except for Most of Us: What Economics Teaches About Globalization and the recent briefing paper “A Feeble Recovery: The fundamental economic weaknesses of the 2001-07 expansion.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167