Despite intense scrutiny, estimates of the government spending multiplier remain highlyuncertain, with values ranging from 0.5 to 2. While an increase in government spendingis generally assumed to have the same (mirror-image) effect as a decrease in governmentspending, we show that relaxing this assumption is important to understand the effectsof fiscal policy. Regardless of whether we identify government spending shocks from (i) anarrative approach, or (ii) a timing restriction, we find that the contractionary multiplier-the multiplier associated with a negative shock to government spending- is above 1, whilethe expansionary multiplier -the multiplier associated with a positive shock- is substantially below 1. The multiplier is largest in recessions, as found in previous studies, but onlybecause the contractionary multiplier is largest in recessions. The expansionary multiplieris always below 1 and not larger in recessions. We argue that our results help understandthe wide range of multiplier estimates found in the literature.