A new study has some data for a survey. Bottom line:
Most respondents report that they primarily saved or paid down debts with their transfers, with only about 15 percent reporting that they mostly spent it. When providing a detailed breakdown of how they used their checks, individuals report having spent or planning to spend only around 40 percent of the total transfer on average. This relatively low rate of spending out of a one-time transfer is higher for those facing liquidity constraints, who are out of the labor force, who live in larger households, who are less educated and those who received smaller amounts.
As the authors note, this is more or less what happened after previous efforts to stimulate the economy by sending everyone checks, too.
Basically, indiscriminately chucking money at people is not a great way to get cash out into the economy. Plenty of folks weren’t too affected by the pandemic financially — the unemployment rate never topped 15 percent — and just saved the money or put it toward debt. If you want to help the individuals and businesses most affected by the problem, or if you want to get money to the people most likely to spend it, you want to target them specifically.
Our relief efforts did directly help businesses and the unemployed too, of course. But I’m not sure this checks-for-all thing was a good use of funds, as much as everyone likes free money.