Promoting and Preserving Supply-Side Economics.

1940-Present: A Career in Retrospective.

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August 14, 1940- Born in Youngstown, Ohio.

1963- Graduated from Yale. Began studies majoring in math, but switched to economics after studying at the University of Munich.

1965- Completed MBA at Stanford and got a full scholarship to the Economics Department to pursue a PhD at Stanford. Also worked at the Cleveland Fed and got his first AER publication in 1965 before he entered the Ph.D. program.

1967- Accepted offer at the University of Chicago where Robert Mundell was already on faculty. Dr. Laffer was eager to work alongside Mundell, one of the earliest supply-side thinkers already taking the economics world by storm. However, Dr. Laffer took a leave of absence before starting at the University of Chicago in order to work at the Brookings Institute.

1968- Returned to University of Chicago to teach for two years.

1970- Became the first Chief Economist at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where he worked for George Shultz, the newly appointed head of the newly formed OMB. While at OMB, Dr. Laffer served as a key advisor on teams playing a significant role in the Administration's economic policy discussions.

1971- While working at OMB, Dr. Laffer and his colleague David Ranson develop a new forecasting model estimating Gross National Product would reach $1,065 billion in 1971. The prediction became controversial, and although many of his colleagues and others derided the forecast as overly optimistic, his estimate was ultimately proven correct and far closer than the consensus at the time of his prediction. By 1976, the Economic Report of the President gave the official 1971 GNP figure as $1,063.4 billion.

1972- Returned to the University of Chicago as Associate Professor of Business Economics, working closely with students and alongside Chicago faculty and students working in South America.

1974- While at dinner with Dick Cheney (Dr. Laffer's former classmate at Yale, who was now deputy to President Gerald Ford's Chief of Staff, Don Rumsfeld) and Jude Wanniski (then associate editor of the Wall Street Journal), Dr. Laffer sketched the tradeoff between tax rates and tax revenues on a cocktail napkin. Wanniski coined the tradeoff the "Laffer Curve".

1976- Named the Charles B. Thornton Professor of Business Economics at the University of Southern California. During this time, Dr. Laffer became personally acquainted with future-President Ronald Reagan, spending much of the time between 1976 and 1980 meeting with Reagan on a frequent basis.

1980- Active with President Reagan's campaign. Served on the original Reagan Executive Advisory Committee as the youngest member, as well as on the Reagan Transition Team.

1981- Member of the President's Economic Policy Advisory Board chaired by George Shultz created by Executive Order of President Reagan from 1981-1989. Also was advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during her time in office.

1986- Ran unsuccessfully for California's Senate seat, earning endorsements from Muhammed Ali, Dick Cheney, Howard Jarvis, Paul Gann, Rosey Grier, and Ray Bradbury, among others.

1989- The Wall Street Journal lists Dr. Laffer in "A Gallery of the Greatest People Who Influenced Our Daily Business."

1990- The Los Angeles Times includes Dr. Laffer in "A Dozen Who Shaped the '80s."

1991- Dr. Laffer is the founding board member of U.S. Filter, a water filtration company sold to Vivendi Environnment in 1999. Over the years, Dr. Laffer has served on a number of other private and public boards, including California First National Bank, Clarcor, HNTB, ProvideCommerce, Mastec, MPS Group, U.S. Script, and William Lyon Homes.

1999- TIME Magazine acknowledges the Laffer Curve in its cover story of "The Century's Greatest Minds" calling it one of "a few of the advances that powered this extraordinary century."

2006- Moved business and family from California to Tennessee.

1940

Present

Open/Close Interactive Timeline. Slide to Reveal Laffer's History.

Arthur Laffer

Arthur B. 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.” The Laffer Curve is one of the main theoretical constructs of supply-side economics, illustrating the tradeoff between tax rates and actual tax revenues.

Dr. Laffer’s career has been marked by experience and success in business, in public policy, and as an academic economist and professor.

During the years 1972-1977, 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 under Mr. Shultz from October 1970 to July 1972.

Dr. Laffer was a member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board for both of his two 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 U.K. during the 1980s.

Dr. Laffer 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 1976-1984. 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 1967-1976.

Dr. Laffer has been widely acknowledged for his economic achievements. A March 1999 Time Magazine cover story “The Century’s Greatest Minds” deemed the Laffer Curve one of “a dew advances that powered this extraordinary century.” He was listed in “A Dozen Who Shaped the ‘80s” in the Los Angeles Times on January 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.”

He has received numerous awards and recognition for his economic work, including: 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 Investment Clubs; the Adam Smith Award for his insights and contributions to the Wealth of Nations; and the Daniel Webster Award for public speaking by the International Platform Association. Dr. Laffer also earned the Father of the Year award from the West Coast Father’s Day Committee in 1983.

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, and most recently Return to Prosperity.

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

Dr. Laffer currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee where he is the founder and chairman of Laffer Associates, an institutional economic research and consulting firm, as well as Laffer Invesments, an institutional investment management firm utilizing diverse investment strategies. The firms provide research and investment management services to a diverse group of clients, which includes institutions, pension funds, corporations, endowments, foundations, individuals and others.