Articles / April 06,2020

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 wealth tax. The debate was to have taken place at Pepperdine University in California. Saez, a proud man of the left, is one of the most prominent economists in the world—recent striking evidence being the honorary degree that Harvard University conferred upon him last year.

Study / September 01,2015

These series of charts offers a snapshot of West Virginia’s economic climate and how the state compares with other U.S. states. The charts were included in Dr. Laffer’s remarks to  the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Meeting on September 2, 2015. Link to study: West Virginia Chartbook

Articles, Study / July 23,2015

For many countries around the world, the challenge of administering effective tobacco taxation has been to ensure the optimal level and structure of taxation that achieves the public health and public finance goals of governments. As I pointed out in my book, Handbook of Tobacco Taxation: Theory and Practice, many people believe that tax policies on tobacco…

Articles, Study / May 14,2015

President Obama’s FY 2016 budget plan includes a proposal to deny the standard business cost deduction to U.S.-based, foreign-owned companies for reinsurance premiums they pay to foreign reinsurance affiliates. That same proposal is carried over, though never enacted, from President Obama’s budgets for several recent years. Link to study: Do We Want Special Interest Trade…

Articles, Study / May 11,2015

Jimmy Pethokoukis, a columnist and blogger at the American Enterprise Institute, recently appeared on my friend Bill Bennett’s radio show. Based on his comments on Bill’s show, Jimmy wrote an article entitled “The right needs to get real on Reaganomics,” claiming that the Reagan tax cuts didn’t pay for themselves. Bill Bennett asked for my…

Study / March 27,2015

Summary •  Keynesian policies exacerbated both the Great Depression and Great Recession, while supply-side policies gave us the Roaring Twenties and the Reagan Eighties—the two most prosperous periods of the 20th century. •  The ideal public policies should be: a.) a low rate broad-based flat tax, b.) spending restraint, c.) sound money, d.) free trade and…

Study / December 01,2014

A prosperous economy is created via good economic policy and then getting out of the way to let America’s amazing companies and citizens work, produce and invest. The perfect pro-growth agenda includes: a low rate flat tax, spending restraint, sound money, minimal regulation, and free trade. While bipartisan movement on some of these key pro-growth…

Articles, Book, Study / November 06,2014

PRESS RELEASE San Francisco, November 6, 2014 Pacific Research Institute Launches New Book The Pillars of Reaganomics: A Generation of Wisdom from Arthur Laffer and the Supply Side Revolutions Timeless Ideas for a New Congress The Laffer Center at the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) today launched a new book, The Pillars of Reaganomics: A Generation…