Innovative Applications of the Laffer Curve

The Smith Center for Private Enterprise Studies at CSUEB, together with the Scott Probasco Chair of Free Enterprise at UTC, cosponsored a national conference on Innovative Applications of the Laffer Curve on April 13 in Washington, DC. The event took place within the four-day annual meeting of Association of Private Enterprise Education.

Pictured from left to right: Charles Baird, Arthur Laffer, Dwight Lee, and J.R. Clark . Laffer orginated the Laffer Curve idea, and Baird, Lee, and Clark originated the idea for this conference.

Notable participants included Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, Jack Kemp, the 1996 Republican vice presidential candidate.

Economist Arthur Laffer originated the Laffer Curve idea-- that under the right circumstances, tax rate reductions can result in increases in total taxes paid. Laffer inspired the Reagan tax rate cuts of the early eighties. Charles W. Baird, director of the Smith Center, presented a paper in which he argued that if unions are successful in getting new laws passed that make it easier for them to capture more dues payer, the eventual result will be a substantial decline in the percent of the private sector workforce that is unionized.