Stimulus and Unemployment: No Correlation

by Kate Piercy Here’s an interesting chart from the Mercatus Center’s Veronique de Rugy, who has examined different states’ unemployment at the time The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) passed and the stimulus funds each state has received so far. De Rugy found no correlation between the two variables. The chart suggests stimulus funds...

by Kate Piercy

Here’s an interesting chart from the Mercatus Center’s Veronique de Rugy, who has examined different states’ unemployment at the time The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) passed and the stimulus funds each state has received so far. De Rugy found no correlation between the two variables.

The chart suggests stimulus funds are not being allocated according to a state’s level of economic distress, so what factors are determining the methods of allocation? See what de Rugy thinks are the big drivers of the stimulus disbursement.