Economics Professor Quoted In Quartz Article On COVID-19 Federal Spending

Eller College of Management Thomas R. Brown Professor of Economics Price Fishback was recently quoted in a February 27 Quartz article, predicting that high levels of federal spending are to continue to occur post-pandemic. 

The article explains the reason that “big-spending” is seeing a comeback is mainly because citizens have become accustomed to it since the pandemic and now demand higher government spending after seeing its benefits on the economy.

“People come to benefit from it and then to expect it,” says Fishback. “That makes it harder to go back to a time of low spending. As of now, after Covid-19, the figure (federal net outlay as a percentage of GDP) has hit 36 percent, assuming all allocated money has been spent.”

Price Fishback joined the Eller College of Management as associate professor in 1990 after teaching at the University of Georgia and was appointed the Thomas R. Brown Professor of Economics in 2010. His research areas of interest are the political economy of Roosevelt’s New Deal during the 1930s, examining both the determinants of New Deal spending and loans and their impact on local economies throughout the U.S. He also is interested in state labor legislation during the Progressive Era, the American Economy during World War II and government policy and technology.