How Much Did the 2009 Australian Fiscal Stimulus Boost Demand? Evidence from Household-Reported Spending Effects
-
Andrew Leigh
Using survey evidence, I estimate the impact of $21 billion in household payments delivered in Australia between December 2008 and May 2009. Forty percent of households who said that they received a payment reported having spent it. This is a higher spending rate than has been recorded in surveys assessing the 2001 and 2008 tax rebates in the United States. One possible explanation for this is that individuals are more likely to spend “bonuses” (as the Australian payments were described) than “rebates” (as the US payments were described). Using an approach for converting spending rates into an aggregate marginal propensity to consume (MPC), the Australian results are consistent with an aggregate MPC of 0.41-0.42. Since this estimate is based largely on first-quarter spending, it may understate the longer-run impact of the package on consumer expenditure.
©2012 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Advances Article
- Life Cycle Dynamics of Income Uncertainty and Consumption
- Immigration, Fiscal Policy, and Welfare in an Aging Population
- Contributions Article
- Who Gets the Credit? And Does It Matter? Household vs. Firm Lending Across Countries
- How Much Did the 2009 Australian Fiscal Stimulus Boost Demand? Evidence from Household-Reported Spending Effects
- Economic Growth and Political Survival
- Exchange Rate Uncertainty and Trade
- Monetary and Macroprudential Policy Rules in a Model with House Price Booms
- A Unified Framework for Using Micro-Data to Compare Dynamic Time-Dependent Price-Setting Models
- Government Policy Response to War-Expenditure Shocks
- Poverty Traps and Growth in a Model of Endogenous Time Preference
- Where Has All the Money Gone? Foreign Aid and the Composition of Government Spending
- Great Spending Crashes
- Capital Utilization and the Amplification Mechanism
- Topics Article
- Unemployment Expectations and the Business Cycle
- Sector-Specific Capital, Labor Market Distortions and Cross-Country Income Differences: A Two-Sector General Equilibrium Approach
- A Dynamic Theory of Competence, Loyalty and Stability in Dictatorships
- Coordination Failure in Investment, Economic Growth, and Volatility
- Openness, Imported Commodities and the Sacrifice Ratio
- Consumption, Leisure and Borrowing Constraints
- A Credibility Proxy: Tracking US Monetary Developments
- Estimating Information Rigidity Using Firms' Survey Data
- Has the Fed Reacted Asymmetrically to Stock Prices?
- News Shocks, Productivity and the U.S. Investment Boom-Bust Cycle
- A Supply-Demand Framework for Understanding the U.S. Gender Gap in Education
- Misallocation and Manufacturing TFP in Bolivia during the Market Liberalization Period
- Government Debt Dynamics Under Discretion
- The Global Transmission of Government Debt
- Is Discretionary Fiscal Policy in Japan Effective?
- The Laffer Curve in a Frictional Labor Market
- Nonexponential Discounting: A Direct Test And Perhaps A New Puzzle
- International Transmission of Medium-Term Technology Cycles: Evidence from Spain as a Recipient Country
- Phases of Economic Development: Do Initial Endowments Matter?
Articles in the same Issue
- Advances Article
- Life Cycle Dynamics of Income Uncertainty and Consumption
- Immigration, Fiscal Policy, and Welfare in an Aging Population
- Contributions Article
- Who Gets the Credit? And Does It Matter? Household vs. Firm Lending Across Countries
- How Much Did the 2009 Australian Fiscal Stimulus Boost Demand? Evidence from Household-Reported Spending Effects
- Economic Growth and Political Survival
- Exchange Rate Uncertainty and Trade
- Monetary and Macroprudential Policy Rules in a Model with House Price Booms
- A Unified Framework for Using Micro-Data to Compare Dynamic Time-Dependent Price-Setting Models
- Government Policy Response to War-Expenditure Shocks
- Poverty Traps and Growth in a Model of Endogenous Time Preference
- Where Has All the Money Gone? Foreign Aid and the Composition of Government Spending
- Great Spending Crashes
- Capital Utilization and the Amplification Mechanism
- Topics Article
- Unemployment Expectations and the Business Cycle
- Sector-Specific Capital, Labor Market Distortions and Cross-Country Income Differences: A Two-Sector General Equilibrium Approach
- A Dynamic Theory of Competence, Loyalty and Stability in Dictatorships
- Coordination Failure in Investment, Economic Growth, and Volatility
- Openness, Imported Commodities and the Sacrifice Ratio
- Consumption, Leisure and Borrowing Constraints
- A Credibility Proxy: Tracking US Monetary Developments
- Estimating Information Rigidity Using Firms' Survey Data
- Has the Fed Reacted Asymmetrically to Stock Prices?
- News Shocks, Productivity and the U.S. Investment Boom-Bust Cycle
- A Supply-Demand Framework for Understanding the U.S. Gender Gap in Education
- Misallocation and Manufacturing TFP in Bolivia during the Market Liberalization Period
- Government Debt Dynamics Under Discretion
- The Global Transmission of Government Debt
- Is Discretionary Fiscal Policy in Japan Effective?
- The Laffer Curve in a Frictional Labor Market
- Nonexponential Discounting: A Direct Test And Perhaps A New Puzzle
- International Transmission of Medium-Term Technology Cycles: Evidence from Spain as a Recipient Country
- Phases of Economic Development: Do Initial Endowments Matter?