A GRANT TO EVERY CITIZEN: SURVEY EVIDENCE OF THE IMPACT OF A DIRECT GOVERNMENT PAYMENT IN ISRAEL

Naomi Feldman; Ori Heffetz

doi:10.1086/719449

A GRANT TO EVERY CITIZEN: SURVEY EVIDENCE OF THE IMPACT OF A DIRECT GOVERNMENT PAYMENT IN ISRAEL

Naomi Feldman, Ori Heffetz

Department of Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

During the 2020 COVID-19 recession, Israel disbursed one-time, universal grants of $220 per adult and $150 per child. We ask survey respondents about the grant’s primary effect on their situation. Twenty to 45 percent report increasing spending, and 36–52 percent report reducing debts. Importantly, as many respondents report donating or helping friends or family as increasing saving (10–18 percent). While financially weaker respondents reduce debt more, stronger ones not only increase saving but also increase giving — a new finding of nonnegligible, voluntary, decentralized reallocation of governmental assistance. We explore how Israel’s political situation and our methodology may have affected our findings, helped by a follow-up US survey.

Original language	American English
Pages (from-to)	229-263
Number of pages	35
Journal	National Tax Journal
Volume	75
Issue number	2
Early online date	1 Jun 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1086/719449
State	E-pub ahead of print - 1 Jun 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors thank Joel Slemrod, Claudia Sahm, and Jonathan Parker for generously sharing their original materials, survey scripts, and calculations; seminar participants at the University of Michigan, Bar Ilan University, the Hebrew University, and IDC Herzliya; Aharon Haver, Guy Ishai, Caleb Maresca, Doron Zamir, and Arjun Ramani for excellent research assistance; Israel’s National Economic Council and Prime Minister’s Office for funding the Israel survey; and Cornell’s S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management for funding the US survey. The views expressed here are of the authors only; they have no financial or other material interests related to this research to disclose.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 National Tax Association. All rights reserved.

Keywords

fiscal policy
marginal propensity to spend
politics
stimulus
survey methodology
universal transfers

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10.1086/719449

Cite this

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title = "A GRANT TO EVERY CITIZEN: SURVEY EVIDENCE OF THE IMPACT OF A DIRECT GOVERNMENT PAYMENT IN ISRAEL",

abstract = "During the 2020 COVID-19 recession, Israel disbursed one-time, universal grants of $220 per adult and $150 per child. We ask survey respondents about the grant{\textquoteright}s primary effect on their situation. Twenty to 45 percent report increasing spending, and 36–52 percent report reducing debts. Importantly, as many respondents report donating or helping friends or family as increasing saving (10–18 percent). While financially weaker respondents reduce debt more, stronger ones not only increase saving but also increase giving — a new finding of nonnegligible, voluntary, decentralized reallocation of governmental assistance. We explore how Israel{\textquoteright}s political situation and our methodology may have affected our findings, helped by a follow-up US survey.",

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author = "Naomi Feldman and Ori Heffetz",

note = "Funding Information: The authors thank Joel Slemrod, Claudia Sahm, and Jonathan Parker for generously sharing their original materials, survey scripts, and calculations; seminar participants at the University of Michigan, Bar Ilan University, the Hebrew University, and IDC Herzliya; Aharon Haver, Guy Ishai, Caleb Maresca, Doron Zamir, and Arjun Ramani for excellent research assistance; Israel{\textquoteright}s National Economic Council and Prime Minister{\textquoteright}s Office for funding the Israel survey; and Cornell{\textquoteright}s S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management for funding the US survey. The views expressed here are of the authors only; they have no financial or other material interests related to this research to disclose. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 National Tax Association. All rights reserved.",

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A GRANT TO EVERY CITIZEN: SURVEY EVIDENCE OF THE IMPACT OF A DIRECT GOVERNMENT PAYMENT IN ISRAEL

Abstract

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Keywords

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