A column in the Guardian cited a study appearing in this month’s issue of the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics. In Transfer Payments and the Macroeconomy: The Effects of Social Security Benefit Increases, 1952-1991, authors Christina Romer and David Romer study the way increases in transfer payments to some individuals can affect the broader economy. They find that when people see increases in their social security payments, they respond by spending more right away, but the response is less sustained than for tax cuts of comparable size.