Arthur Laffer - Life and Career

Life and Career

Laffer was born in Youngstown, Ohio, the son of Marian Amelia "Molly" (née Betz), a homemaker and politician, and William Gillespie Laffer, a president of the Clevite Corporation. He was raised a Presbyterian. Laffer earned a B.A. in Economics from Yale University (1962) and an M.B.A. (1965) and a Ph.D. in Economics (1971) from Stanford University.

Laffer was a tenured professor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business at the time of his discussion of the Laffer Curve with the Nixon/Ford administrations. While he was at the USC Marshall School of Business, Laffer played a key role in writing California Proposition 13, the property-tax-cap initiative that inspired a tax revolt across the nation.

In the mid-1980s, Laffer left to teach at Pepperdine University in nearby Malibu. Laffer remained on the faculty for several years.

In 1986, Laffer was a candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate—which he lost in the California primary to U.S. Congressman Ed Zschau who lost in the general election to the incumbent, Democrat Alan Cranston. Laffer identifies himself as a staunch fiscal conservative and libertarian. He has stated publicly that he voted for President Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. Laffer references President Clinton's conservative fiscal policies as cornerstones of his support.

In 2008, he was named a Distinguished University Professor of Economics by Mercer University in Georgia.