Did the 2001 Tax Rebate Stimulate Spending? Evidence from Taxpayer Surveys

Matthew D. Shapiro, Joel Slemrod

NBER Working Paper No. 9308
Issued in November 2002
NBER Program(s):Economic Fluctuations and Growth, Public Economics

In 2001, many households received rebate checks as advanced payments of the benefit of the new, 10 percent federal income tax bracket. A survey conducted at the time the rebates were mailed finds that few households said that the rebate led them mostly to increase spending. A follow-up survey in 2002, as well as a similar survey conducted after the attacks of 9/11, also indicates low spending rates. This paper investigates the robustness of these survey responses and assesses whether such surveys are useful for policy evaluation. It also draws lessons from the surveys for macroeconomic analysis of the tax rebate.

Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX

Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w9308

Published:

• Did the 2001 Tax Rebate Stimulate Spending? Evidence from Taxpayer Surveys, Matthew D. Shapiro, Joel Slemrod. in Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 17, Poterba. 2003
• Matthew D. Shapiro & Joel Slemrod, 2003. "Did the 2001 Tax Rebate Stimulate Spending? Evidence from Taxpayer Surveys," Tax Policy and the Economy, vol 17(), pages 83-109.