Cash for Clunkers' ripple effect in northeast Indiana

Marty Schladen, The Journal Gazette

mschladen@jg.net

Cash for Clunkers is over, but its economic effects for the region are just beginning, experts say.

The $3 billion auto-subsidy program, which ended last week, provided $3,500 and $4,500 vouchers to carbuyers provided they scrapped older, less-efficient vehicles.

The program increased sales at dealerships nationwide, and the regions where vehicles and the parts that go into them are made will get an additional boost, said David Dilts, chairman of the economics department at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. Northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio make up one of those regions, Dilts said.