Many local governments are accustomed to reporting their performance to management officials, governing bodies, citizens of their communities, and occasionally to officials in state or federal agencies. Reporting on the effects of stimulus spending offers a new and much-expanded audience that includes the nation’s citizens, the media, and national policy leaders. The opportunity to demonstrate the value of investing in the government “closest to the people” is unprecedented.

Aggregating the effects of stimulus spending will require the identification of a suitable set of outcome
measures.  Such a set is proposed in this paper.