The cheques are in the post. Last month, the US government began mailing tax rebates to over 130 million households. The payments, many worth hundreds of dollars, are designed to get consumers spending and breathe new life into the country's stagnating economy.rnBut the plan is unlikely to have much impact, according to two economists. Their research suggests that people are much more likelyrnto spend such rebates if they are divided into monthly payments rather than given as a lump sum. To test the effectiveness of the government's "economic stimulus payments", Valrie Chambers and Marilyn Spencer at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, asked 140 students how they would spend various sums of money. Students offered a one-off rebate of $600 -the maximum payment to individuals without children under the stimulus plans - said they would spend just $113 on average. In contrast, students receiving 12 payments of $50 said they would spend around $420 (Journal of Economic Psychology, D0l:10.1016/j.joep.2008.04.001).
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机译：支票在后。上个月，美国政府开始向超过1.3亿家庭邮寄退税。这笔款项价值数百美元，目的是使消费者花钱，为陷入停滞的经济注入新的活力。但是，两位经济学家表示，该计划不太可能产生太大影响。他们的研究表明，如果人们将其分为月度付款而不是一次性支付，则他们更有可能花费这种折扣。为了测试政府“经济刺激支付”的有效性，德州农工大学科珀斯克里斯蒂分校的Valrie Chambers和Marilyn Spencer询问了140名学生如何花费各种金额。学生们提供了一次性600美元的回扣，这是根据刺激计划向没有孩子的个人提供的最高回扣。他们说，他们平均只花113美元。相比之下，收到12笔50美元的付款的学生表示，他们将花费420美元左右（Journal of Economic Psychology，D0l：10.1016 / j.joep.2008.04.001）。
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