TY  - SER
AU  - Ganong, Peter
AU  -  Greig, Fiona
AU  -  Noel, Pascal
AU  -  Sullivan, Daniel M.
AU  -  Vavra, Joseph
TI  - Spending and Job-Finding Impacts of Expanded Unemployment Benefits: Evidence from Administrative Micro Data
SN  - 0002-8282
PB  - American Economic Review
KW  -  Aggregate Human Capital
KW  -  Aggregate Labor Productivity
KW  -  Macro-Based Behavioral Economics
KW  -  Severance Pay
KW  -  Unemployment
KW  - Macroeconomics
N2  - We show that the largest increase in unemployment benefits in US history had large spending impacts and small job-finding impacts. This finding has three implications. First, increased benefits were important for explaining aggregate spending dynamics-but not employment dynamics-during the pandemic. Second, benefit expansions allow us to study the MPC of normally low-liquidity households in a high-liquidity state. These households still have high MPCs. This suggests a role for permanent behavioral characteristics, rather than just current liquidity, in driving spending behavior. Third, the mechanisms driving our results imply that temporary benefit supplements are a promising countercyclical tool
UR  - https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20220973
ER  -