Arthur B. Laffer

Dr. Laffer is the founder and chairman of Laffer Associates, an economic research and consulting firm that provides global investment research services to banks, fund managers and corporations. Since it started in 1979, the firm’s research has focused on the interconnecting macroeconomic, political and demographic changes affecting global financial markets. Dr. Laffer is well known for having introduced to public policy debates the “Laffer curve” on income tax elasticities.

Dr. Laffer serves on the boards of several public companies, including: CLARCOR, MPS Group and Oxigene, and also on private company boards, including: Nicholas Applegate Institutional Funds, Retirement Capital Group, Roth Capital, First Q Capital and The Mayfair Group. He is a founding member of the Congressional Policy Advisory Board, which helps shape legislative policies for the United States Congress. Dr. Laffer was also from 1981 to 1989 a member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board, and from 1972 to 1977 a consultant to William Simon and George Shultz, as Secretaries of the Treasury, and Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense. He was the first Chief Economist at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under Mr. Shultz from 1970 to 1972.

He was formerly the Distinguished University Professor at Pepperdine University, Charles B. Thornton Professor of Business Economics at the University of Southern California from 1976 to 1984, and Associate Professor of Business Economics at the University of Chicago from 1970 to 1976.

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