Arthur Laffer

Arthur Laffer Profile

Arthur B. Laffer is the founder and chairman of Laffer Associates, an economic research and consulting firm.

Dr. Laffer’s economic acumen and influence in triggering a world-wide tax-cutting movement in the 1980s have earned him the distinction in many publications as “The Father of Supply-Side Economics.” One of his earliest successes in shaping public policy was his involvement in Proposition 13, the groundbreaking California initiative that drastically cut property taxes in the state in 1978.

Dr. Laffer was a member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board for both of his terms (1981-1989). He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Reagan/Bush Finance Committee in 1984 and was a founding member of the Reagan Executive Advisory Committee for the presidential race of 1980. He also advised Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on fiscal policy in the UK during the 1980s.

He was formerly the Distinguished University Professor at Pepperdine University and a member of the Pepperdine Board of Directors. He also held the status as the Charles B. Thornton Professor of Business Economics at the University of Southern California from 1976 to 1984. He was an Associate Professor of Business Economics at the University of Chicago from 1970 to 1976 and a member of the Chicago faculty from 1967 through 1976.

During the years 1972 to 1977, Dr. Laffer was a consultant to Secretary of the Treasury William Simon, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of the Treasury George Shultz. He was the first to hold the title of Chief Economist at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under Mr. Shultz from October 1970 to July 1972. Dr. Laffer was a founding member of the Congressional Policy Advisory Board, a select group of advisors who assisted in shaping legislative policies for the 105th, 106th and 107th United States Congress. Dr. Laffer again advised Don Rumsfeld during Mr. Rumsfeld’s second appointment as Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006.

Dr. Laffer has been widely acknowledged for his achievements in the world of economics. He was noted in Time magazine’s March 29, 1999 cover story “The Century’s Greatest Minds” for inventing the Laffer Curve, which it deemed one of “a few of the advances that powered this extraordinary century.” He was listed in “A Dozen Who Shaped the ’80s,” in the Los Angeles Times on Jan. 1, 1990, and in “A Gallery of the Greatest People Who Influenced Our Daily Business,” in The Wall Street Journal on June 23, 1989. His creation of the Laffer Curve was deemed a “memorable event” in financial history by the Institutional Investor in its July 1992 Silver Anniversary issue, “The Heroes, Villains, Triumphs, Failures and Other Memorable Events.” In addition, Bloomberg Businessweek selected the Laffer Curve as one of the “85 Most Disruptive Ideas In Our History” for its 85th-anniversary issue in 2014.

The awards that Dr. Laffer has received for his economic work include: two Graham and Dodd Awards from the Financial Analyst Federation for outstanding feature articles published in the Financial Analysts Journal; the Distinguished Service Award by the National Association of Investment Clubs; the 2019 Adam Smith Award given annually by the National Association of Business Economists; the Daniel Webster Award for public speaking by the International Platform Association; and the Prof. Hans Möller Medaille from the University of Munich Alumni Association. In addition, Dr. Laffer earned the Father of the Year award from the West Coast Father’s Day Committee in 1983 and was awarded the Hayek Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. In December 2017, Dr. Laffer became the first recipient of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Laffer Award for Economic Excellence, and in 2019 he received the inaugural Paul Kangas Award for Innovation from South Florida Public Broadcasting Service.

In June 2019, Dr. Laffer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump.

Years of experience and success in advising on a governmental level have distinguished Dr. Laffer in the business community as well. He sits on the boards of AML RightSource, ARK Investment Management, Armor Concepts, BelHealth Investment Partners, Gemini Bio, GoodCell, Gridiron Capital, NexPoint Real Estate Finance, NexPoint Residential Trust, Precision Diagnostics, Preverity, Tenth Avenue Holdings, The Service Companies, VerifyMe, VineBrook Homes Trust and others.

Dr. Laffer is the author of a number of books, including The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy—If We Let it Happen, which was a nominee for the F.A. Hayek book award in 2009, Return to Prosperity: How America Can Regain Its Economic Superpower Status, Eureka! How to Fix California, New York Times Best Seller An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of States, its sequel Wealth of States: More Ways to Enhance Freedom, Opportunity and Growth and Taxes Have Consequences: An Income Tax History of the United States, released by Post Hill Press in September 2022.

Dr. Laffer received a B.A. in economics from Yale University in 1963. He received a MBA and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University in 1965 and 1972, respectively.