Startseite The Impact of the CARES Stimulus Payments on COVID-19 Transmission and Mortality
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The Impact of the CARES Stimulus Payments on COVID-19 Transmission and Mortality

  • Alicia Atwood ORCID logo EMAIL logo und Caitlyn Fleming
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 21. August 2023

Abstract

In this paper, we study the impact of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act economic impact payments to individuals on the spread of COVID-19 and subsequent mortality. There is a large economic literature linking income shocks and mortality. Using an event study approach and controlling for time-varying stay-at-home directives, we find no statistically significant change in confirmed case rates and no meaningful change to death rates from COVID-19. Our research suggests that distributing the individual stimulus payments at the same time to everyone had no effect on the spread of COVID-19.

JEL Classification: H24; H31; H53; I12; I14; I18

Corresponding author: Alicia Atwood, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Vassar College, Box 283, 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604, USA, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Anthony Lo Sasso for helpful comments. We thank Maya Talwar-Hebert for excellent research assistance. Caitlyn Fleming coauthored this paper before joining Cornerstone Research. The views expressed herein are solely those of the author who is responsible for the content, and do not necessarily represent the views of Cornerstone Research.

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Supplementary Material

This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2022-0292).


Received: 2022-08-05
Accepted: 2023-07-30
Published Online: 2023-08-21

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 20.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/bejeap-2022-0292/html
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