November 12, 2012 -The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in San Francisco, announced today the establishment of the Laffer Center, a partnership between PRI and Dr. Arthur B. Laffer, famed economist and the "Father of Supply-Side Economics". The Laffer Center at the Pacific Research Institute is dedicated to advancing free-market principles, and preserving and promoting the core tenets of supply-side economics.
The Laffer Center will be a major force for promoting supply-side research and thought leadership, including the ideas and works of other economists, researchers and supply-side visionaries whose ideas have played an instrumental role in the supply-side movement around the world. A key tenant of the Laffer Center will be educating people about how the right free-market ideas and solutions to issues facing our cities, states, our nation, and the world can bring prosperity and improve people's lives. To accomplish its mission, the Laffer Center will:
* Produce original research to weigh in on the issues of the day at the state and federal level, as well as important global economic issues, with a rigorous examination of the role of market incentives in public policy. A key project the Laffer Center is considering for 2013 is the development of a "dynamic scoring" model that will be used for evaluating the impact of major legislation on the U.S. economy. It will serve as an alternative to the current "static scoring" model produced by the Congressional Budget Office which has been widely criticized for decades.
* Educate people on the benefits of economic freedom and liberty through aggressive outreach through the media, speeches, events, and other activities that take our message to audiences around the nation and world.
* Cultivate relationships with national political leaders -- today's elected officials, and the rising political stars of tomorrow -- arming them with research and policy recommendations that promote economic freedom as a path toward greater prosperity.
* Build and preserve the nation's largest collection of market-based research, beginning with an archive of Dr. Laffer's published research and editorials, as well as new research on supply-side economics, and the work of other supply-side scholars and thought leaders past, present, and future.
"We are very pleased to partner with Dr. Laffer to establish the Laffer Center at the Pacific Research Institute," said Sally C. Pipes, President and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute. "Earlier this year, Dr. Laffer authored the book Eureka! How to Fix California published by PRI. We were so gratified by the success of the project that we decided to expand our collaboration with the creation of the Laffer Center at PRI."
Dr. Laffer said: "We have lots of choices to make in life as individuals, families, communities and nations. Some choices are easy to make while others are harder. Having the right foundations and information at hand to make the right decisions has never been more important than today. By partnering with PRI, I am confident that the Laffer Center will lead the debate about the important issues facing California, our nation and the world with clear headed solutions to some of the most important challenges of our time. The right answers to the problems we face, transcend political parties, gender, social classes and geography. They are right because they make all people better off."
To learn more about the Laffer Center at the Pacific Research Institute, please contact Rowena Itchon at (415) 955-6123 or
ritchon@pacificresearch.org About Dr. Arthur B. Laffer
Dr. 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." One of his earliest successes in shaping public policy was his involvement in Proposition 13, the groundbreaking California initiative that drastically cut property taxes in the state in 1978.
Dr. Laffer was a member of President Ronald Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board for both of his two terms (1981-1989). He also advised Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on fiscal policy in the U.K. during the 1980s. He 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 to 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 through 1976. During the years 1972 to 1977, Dr. Laffer was a consultant to Secretary of the Treasury William Simon, Secretary of Defense Don 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 (OMB) under Mr. Shultz from October 1970 to July 1972.
Dr. Laffer has been widely acknowledged for his economic achievements. He was noted in Time Magazine's March 29, 1999 cover story "The Century's Greatest Minds" for inventing the Laffer Curve, which it deemed one of "a few of the advances that powered this extraordinary century". He was listed in "A Dozen Who Shaped the '80s," in the Los Angeles Times on Jan. 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."
The awards that Dr. Laffer has received for his economic work include: 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 of 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 and Eureka!
Dr. Laffer received a B.A. in economics from Yale University in 1963. He received a MBA and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University in 1965 and 1972 respectively.
