TY  - JOUR
AU  - Aizenman,Joshua
AU  - Pasricha,Gurnain Kaur
TI  - On the ease of overstating the fiscal stimulus in the US, 2008-9
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15784
PY  - 2010
Y2  - February 2010
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15784
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15784.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Joshua Aizenman
Department of Economics;  E2
1156 High St.
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA  95064
Tel: 831/459-4791
Fax: 831/459-5077
E-Mail: jaizen@ucsc.edu

Gurnain Kaur Pasricha
Bank of Canada
234 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0G9
Canada
E-Mail: gpasricha@bankofcanada.ca
AB  - This note shows that the aggregate fiscal expenditure stimulus in the United States, properly adjusted for the declining fiscal expenditure of the fifty states, was close to zero in 2009. While the Federal government stimulus prevented a net decline in aggregate fiscal expenditure, it did not stimulate the aggregate expenditure above its predicted mean. We discuss the implications of limitations on states' ability to run deficits for the design of fiscal stimulus at the federal level. We devote particular attention to intertemporal moral hazard concerns in a federal fiscal system, and ways to address these concerns.
ER  -