Economics
Fiscal Multipliers and Government Spending Efficacy
Quick fact
Estimates of the US fiscal multiplier for government purchases typically range from 0.5 to 1.5, but during the 2008 financial crisis, multipliers were often estimated to be above 2, meaning every dollar of spending produced over two dollars of economic output.
Why this is interesting
Imagine the government spends $100 million on a new highway. Why does the economy sometimes gain far more than $100 million—and other times gain less?