Economics Atlas

How Wealth Is Ordered
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Schools of Thought

Supply-Side Economics

Also Known As Trickle-Down Economics Used broadly by critics rather than by the school's own proponents; Reagan OMB director David Stockman stated plainly in a 1981 Atlantic Monthly interview that supply-side theory is trickle-down theory, the clearest documented equation of the two terms.
Chicago School, Monetarism and the Free-Market Counter-Revolution

Supply-side economics holds that economic growth is best fostered by lowering marginal tax rates, reducing regulation and enabling free trade, so as to expand production and supply rather than by managing aggregate demand. It developed in the 1970s in response to stagflation, associated with Arthur Laffer, Robert Mundell and the journalist Jude Wanniski, whose 1978 book The Way the World Works popularized the approach, and it shaped Reagan-era tax policy in the 1980s.

Facts
Start Year
1970 1
Developed across the 1970s in response to stagflation; associated with Arthur Laffer, Robert Mundell and Jude Wanniski, and with Reagan-era tax policy in the 1980s.
Core Tenet
Lower marginal tax rates raise the after-tax reward for work, saving and investment, expanding aggregate supply; the Laffer curve holds that this effect can be strong enough that, past some point, cutting tax rates increases rather than decreases total government revenue. 1
Supply-Side Economics
Connections

Associated Figures and Events

Laffer served on Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board (1981-1989) and is the school's most prominent popularizer through the Laffer Curve.

Source Wikipedia

Associated With

Laffer Curve, Concepts
Source Wikipedia

Held Differently

Keynesian Economics, Schools of Thought

Why this is disputed. Supply-side economics emerged as an alternative to Keynesian demand management, arguing that expanding aggregate supply through lower marginal tax rates and lighter regulation, not stimulating aggregate demand, is the effective route to growth.

Source Wikipedia
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Supply-side economics
    Supply-side fiscal policies are designed to increase aggregate supply, as opposed to aggregate demand.
  • Trickle-down economics, History
    Supply-side is 'trickle-down' theory.
  • Debated With: Keynesian Economics, Supply-side economics, relation to Keynesian economics
  • Associated Figures and Events: Arthur Laffer, Arthur Laffer, Role as Reagan Advisor and Supply-Side Economics
    a member of President Ronald Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board for both of his terms (1981-1989)
  • Associated With: Laffer Curve, Arthur Laffer, Role as Reagan Advisor and Supply-Side Economics
    is associated with supply-side economics
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.