Arthur Laffer

Arthur Betz Laffer (born 1940) is an American economist best known for the Laffer Curve, which he popularized as a member of Ronald Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board from 1981 to 1989, and for his association with supply-side economics more broadly. The curve holds that tax revenue can be maximized at some tax rate between 0 and 100 percent, so that above a certain point a further rate increase can reduce, rather than raise, total revenue; Laffer's claim that cutting federal income tax rates could itself raise revenue is disputed by most economists, though it shaped Reagan-era tax policy. He later advised Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019.