TUCSON, Ariz. - Looking at how the recovery stimulus could affect Southern Arizona, a University of Arizona economist says the nature of our economy may make our recovery slower.
George Hammond of UA’s Economic and Business Research Center says tourism, restaurants and bars form a big share of our economy and account for about 45 thousand jobs.
But people are more likely to spend the stimulus on basics like groceries and utilities and wait to spend on luxuries like vacations.
He says, “Now once we get control of the virus and people start feeling more comfortable about going out and mixing in, in large crowds and getting on airplanes and staying in hotels, eating in restaurants drinking at bars, then the whatever money is leftover and whatever cushion that is provided to people, that's when we'll start to see that start to matter.”
Hammond says it will be important to see how hard the virus hits Mexico because a lot of Arizona’s economy connects to manufacturing there.
