Why Did the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Fail or Did it?

Abstract

The United States Congress approved the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) on February 13, 2009. U.S. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on February 17, 2009. ARRA was passed in response to widespread fears that the United States was in danger of slipping into a 1930s-style economic depression. After ARRA was enacted, related economic debate centered on tax reductions versus direct federal-government spending. Old arguments resurfaced about the effectiveness of the “New Deal” programs instituted by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt; the 1936-1938 recession; and the theoretical views of both Keynesian and neoclassical economists.Since ARRA was passed, a number of economists have criticized the effectiveness of the stimulus program. Criticisms have ranged from arguments that “the stimulus was too small to be effective” to assertions of ARRA’s failure to address the shortage of qualified workers in the labor force.I briefly review some of these arguments and conduct empirical tests to determine their validity.