"I wouldn't deny that there are real emotional, psychological and, I would call them, economic benefits because economics is about people's happiness as much as anything," said Dennis Coates, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. "It's just that these benefits are incredibly difficult to measure. And the things that we can measure don't show up. Number of jobs? It doesn't do anything for jobs. Income? It didn't do anything for income."