Lower-income Americans were more likely to spend their stimulus checks, but more Americans could also spend their stimulus checks if more businesses were open when the checks began in late April, research found. (Photo: Getty.)
What did people do with their stimulus controls?
People who spend most of their stimulus checks account for 15% of American households, compared to a third of Americans who control their stimuli and more than half used it to pay off debt. That, according to research conducted by three economists circulating through the National Bureau of Economic Research on Monday.
Americans first began receiving $ 1,200 incentive checks for individuals earning $ 75,000 in mid-April as part of the $ 2.2 trillion CARES Act. Married couples earning less than $ 150,000 received $ 2,400. Democrats and Republicans are currently in an impasse over a second economic incentive program.
In June, nearly one-third of people said they used their incentive checks to pay bills, according to a poll released by YouGov, a sign that Americans were struggling to make ends meet. Those bills – including for mobile phones, utilities, cable TV and rentals – are the number one priority, even more so than buying essentials and ’embossing’ clothing, televisions, video games, sporting goods and toys from Walmart WMT, Costco COST and Purpose TGT.
“It is alarming to see how many Americans used these funds to keep a roof over their heads and pay for necessities, seeing as the federal government has not provided clarity on another round of incentive payments to be made in the very near future. , “according to the YouGov report.
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The latest survey also suggests that people are struggling. Americans who spend their stimulating checks primarily were Hispanic, lower-income, and lived in larger households compared to Americans who used their checks to pay off debt or saved the majority of it, according to a survey of 11,000 individuals in Nielsen’s NLelsen,
Homescan panel.
Nielsen’s Homescan panel, in addition to monitoring Americans’ purchasing behavior, directly examined how Americans used their incentive controls in the July 2020 survey. One of the main objectives of the incentive controls was to stimulate economic activity. through consumer spending, one of the driving forces behind the US economy.
The majority of Americans save their incentive checks or use it to pay off debt have an annual household income between $ 75,000 and $ 99,999, the U.S. Census Bureau reported earlier this summer in its separate experimental Household Impulse Survey. In contrast, nearly 88% of adults in households with incomes of $ 25,000 or less plan to use their incentive payments to meet expenses, the survey of more than one million Americans found.
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