Using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) data, we show that firms lever their political connections to win stimulus grants public expenditure channeled through politically connected hinders job creation. We build a unique database links information on campaign contributions, state legislative elections, firm characteristics, ARRA grant allocation. Using exogenous variation in ...

I examine the role of bank’s distance to borrower and proximity other lenders for transmission financial shocks across bank network. use a novel dataset small business lending based on information from Community Reinvestment Act, which measures at census tract groups within each county yields rich variation in bank–borrower borrower–competitor distance. document that banks with increased liquid...

One of the statements purpose American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was “to assist those most impacted by recession.” To consider this facet, grants-in-aid portion ARRA is assessed from perspective fiscal federalism. We estimate a trend-stationary autoregressive model county-level wage income dynamics where each county subject to common shock (with county-specific factor loading) an idi...