Some economists say the Paycheck Protection Program has not saved many jobs.
Educational economists who have studied the paycheck protection program H.ave concluded that it saved relatively few jobs And that, at a cost of more than half a trillion dollars, it is far less efficient than other government efforts to help the economy.
David Autor, an MIT economist, says that the paycheck protection program saved 1.4 million to 3.2 million jobs, Ben Casselman and Jim Tankersley report for The New York Times. Other researchers have offered broadly similar estimates, even after Treasury economists said in December that the program may have saved about 19 million jobs.
Given the cost of the program, saving jobs on a scale of a few million jobs does not necessarily qualify as a success. According to several assessments, unemployment benefits also cost less, and provide programs such as food aid and assistance to state and local governments.
“It’s a really inefficient use of the fund,” said Eric Zwick, an economist at the University of Chicago’s business school.
Many policy experts in Wall Street and Washington say the program’s merits should be assessed instead to protect businesses. On that basis, they say, it helped prevent major disasters and promoted economic remedies.
Michael R., an economist at the American Institute of Enterprise. “A major goal was to keep these businesses alive so that when the economy starts recovering and then the economy reopens, there will be businesses nearby to hire unemployed workers,” said Strain. Conservative think tank. Preliminary evidence suggests that the program succeeds by that metric, he said.
A debate on the merits of the program could shape the next round of aid. President Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan includes billions for small businesses, but no new money for the program. His colleagues are weighing what to do about the money already allocated.
