Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors: 2010
Executive Summary State governments have had to make tough budget choices in recent years. Tax revenues have stagnated as a result of the poor economy, and that has prompted governors to take a variety of fiscal actions to close large budget gaps. Some governors have cut spending to balance their budgets, while others have pursued [...]
Does Fiscal Policy Reduce Unemployment? Evidence from Pork-Barrel Spending
Andrew Leigh Christine Neill Abstract Studies of the effect of government spending on unemployment are potentially confounded by reverse causality. To address the endogeneity problem, we exploit variation in a pork- barrel road-building program, and find that higher government expenditure on road-building substantially reduces local unemployment. JEL Codes: E24, E62, H30, H54, Keywords: fiscal policy, [...]
