The below chart by Mercatus Center Senior Research Fellow Veronique de Rugy examines a state’s unemployment at the time The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed and the stimulus funds that each state has received – there is no correlation between the two variables.

This suggests that stimulus funds have not been allocated according to a state’s level of economic distress, with disbursement instead being determined by other factors.

Veronique de Rugy probes the true drivers of stimulus allocation.