Fiscal austerity explains why recovery has been so long in coming: Change in per capita government spending over last four business cycles
| 1982Q4 | 1991Q1 | 2001Q4 | 2009Q2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -6 | 90.83817 | |||
| -5 | 96.46779 | 91.33168 | ||
| -4 | 96.72548 | 97.80345 | ||
| -3 | 96.51523 | 96.35624 | 94.05089 | |
| -2 | 97.21731 | 98.09825 | 98.14218 | 94.4813 |
| -1 | 98.26435 | 98.92533 | 97.98324 | 96.68474 |
| 0 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| 1 | 100.3829 | 100.7468 | 101.5275 | 99.84022 |
| 2 | 100.9558 | 100.4456 | 102.3723 | 99.50632 |
| 3 | 101.005 | 100.9653 | 102.8023 | 100.7222 |
| 4 | 99.79553 | 102.3054 | 103.3013 | 101.0192 |
| 5 | 100.4771 | 102.4831 | 103.1351 | 101.1242 |
| 6 | 101.715 | 102.7714 | 104.3665 | 100.3432 |
| 7 | 102.037 | 102.2554 | 104.5556 | 98.88213 |
| 8 | 103.485 | 101.9195 | 104.6451 | 98.15822 |
| 9 | 104.602 | 101.724 | 105.4192 | 97.23836 |
| 10 | 106.0107 | 102.011 | 105.8382 | 96.86414 |
| 11 | 107.6073 | 101.868 | 105.804 | 95.9267 |
| 12 | 107.6288 | 101.2959 | 105.4445 | 95.78736 |
| 13 | 108.7749 | 101.4328 | 106.1767 | 95.40735 |
| 14 | 110.4932 | 102.1325 | 106.3521 | 94.83589 |
| 15 | 112.3029 | 101.9209 | 106.5289 | 94.21625 |
| 16 | 111.6476 | 102.6275 | 106.0185 | 93.90439 |
| 17 | 112.0741 | 102.8173 | 107.5423 | 93.62299 |
| 18 | 112.6221 | 102.3836 | 107.6773 | 93.04895 |
| 19 | 112.3952 | 101.1486 | 107.8776 | 93.22292 |
| 20 | 113.0807 | 101.9359 | 108.2144 | 93.60604 |
| 21 | 113.3476 | 103.2437 | 109.1187 | 94.245 |
| 22 | 113.3408 | 102.7047 | 109.0787 | 94.14226 |
| 23 | 113.108 | 102.7598 | 109.5846 | 95.09063 |
| 24 | 114.405 | 103.1194 | 109.8789 | 95.43504 |
| 25 | 114.9973 | 103.4402 | 95.722 | |
| 26 | 116.1049 | 103.3562 | 95.86387 | |
| 27 | 116.8758 | 103.2392 | 96.35498 |
Notes: For total government spending, government consumption and investment expenditures are deflated with the NIPA price deflator. Government transfer payments are deflated with the price deflator for personal consumption expenditures. This figure includes state and local government spending.
Source: Reprinted from Josh Bivens, Why is Recovery Taking So Long—and Who’s to Blame?, Economic Policy Institute report, August 11, 2016. EPI analysis of data from Tables 1.1.4, 3.1, and 3.9.4 from the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)