Mankiw on fiscal policy

Greg Mankiw's Sunday NYT column summarizes recent research comparing the size of the tax cut and government spending multipliers. The Obama stimulus to date has relied mostly on government spending; all indications are that the next round of "job stimulus" will be more of the same. Mankiw finds that most of the research shows that tax cuts generate a bigger bang per buck. This is contrary to what textbook Keynesian models imply. Mankiw cautions, however, that

economists should remain humble and open-minded when considering how best to fix an ailing economy.