Regardless of a country’s natural resources, culture, or education, the institutions it has in place are far more significant in explaining its economic development. Countries with secure private property rights, the rule of law, and free markets tend to have higher per capita incomes and...
Everybody knows that the government spends a whole lot more money doing the same job than the private sector would—and usually doesn’t do as good a job. This pattern isn’t just a coincidence. There are straightforward reasons for the tendency of government interventions in the...
Brian Domitrovic's recent book, The Emergence of Arthur Laffer: The Foundations of Supply-Side Economics in Chicago and Washington, 1966-1976, explores Dr. Laffer's career before working alongside the Reagan administration. In this period, the primary focus of Dr. Laffer's studies was monetary policy, rather than tax...
This comprehensive study on Kentucky’s economic history and prosperity agenda examines state revenue, pensions, tax structure, and political corruption. While Kentucky’s economic performance has historically ranked poorly, Dr. Laffer offers remedies for a path forward. Link to study: The Commonwealth of Kentucky - An Economic History and...
I spent all weekend thinking about Bob Mundell. I had just gotten the hard copy of my own book released several weeks ago, and I was reading it, beginning with the dedication: To Bob Mundell. Robert A. Mundell, the 1999 Nobel Prizewinner in economics and...
On the death of legendary public servant George P. Shultz several days ago, the New Republic ran an extraordinary piece of historical reflection, Bruce Bartlett’s “George Shultz, the Godfather of the Discredited Laffer Curve.” Bartlett’s piece uses Shultz’s death as the merest of pretexts for its...
Professor Saez, the Svengali of raising tax rates on the rich, argues that a tax rate of 73% on the top 1% of income earners raises the most revenues. Somehow, he must have overlooked the 1920s when the highest tax rate was cut from exactly...
When the recent public health crisis took shape in early March, one of the intriguing events that was postponed until the fall was a debate between Arthur Laffer and Emmanuel Saez on the issues of inequality, top income tax rates, and the possibility of a...