Government spending that is usually thought to be flexible actually changes predictably with the economic cycle. By analyzing data from U.S. states, it was found that when employment drops by 1%, this systematic part of government spending also decreases by 0.23%. A specific economic model was used to estimate these effects. The study also showed that a previous method for measuring the impact of government spending did a good job overall, but tended to overestimate the long-term effects.