Via CNN: "[S]timulus payments helped keep a wide range of Americans out of poverty because they were sent to a broad group of people, said Jim Sullivan, an economics professor at the University of Notre Dame, who has tracked the effect of government aid on poverty rates throughout the pandemic. 'It suggests improvements in well-being at a time when there was a sharp decline in employment and the job losses disproportionately hit the lowest-wage earners,' Sullivan said. 'That speaks to the importance of the government response.'"