Arthur B Laffer, Ph.D.
Arthur B. Laffer, Ph.D. Arthur B. Laffer is founder and chairman of Laffer Associates, an economic research and consulting firm that provides investment-research services to institutional asset managers. Since its inception in 1979, the firm’s research has focused on the interconnecting macroeconomic, political, and demographic changes that affect global financial markets. Dr. Laffer’s economic acumen and influence in triggering a worldwide tax-cutting movement in the 1980s have earned him the distinction in many publications of being “The Father of Supply-Side Economics.” One of his earliest successes in shaping public policy was his involvement in Proposition 13, the groundbreaking initiative that drastically cut property taxes in California in 1978. In addition to being a member of President Ronald Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board from 1981–1989, Arthur Laffer was a member of the Executive Committee of the Reagan/Bush Finance Committee in 1984 and a founding member of the Reagan Executive Advisory Committee for the presidential race of 1980. Dr. Laffer’s economic achievements have been widely acknowledged. He was noted in Time’s March 29, 1999, cover story “The Century’s Greatest Minds” for inventing the Laffer Curve, 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 January 1, 1990, and in “A Gallery of the Greatest People Who Influenced Our Daily Business” in The Wall Street Journal on June 23, 1989. Arthur Laffer’s 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.”
Alison Acosta Fraser, Director, Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies
Alison Acosta Fraser oversees The Heritage Foundation’s research on federal spending, taxes, energy and environment, retirement savings, and regulation. One of the Roe Institute’s priorities is reform of Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. Under Fraser’s leadership, Heritage has helped to define the long-term fiscal threats from spending and taxes and to identify proposals for reform.
JD Forster, Norman B. Ture Senior Fellow in the Economics of Fiscal Policy, Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies
JD Foster is studying long-term changes in tax policy to ensure a strong economy. He also examines changes in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security so they are both affordable and more effective. Foster came to Heritage in 2007 after serving many years at the White House, the Executive Branch, Capitol Hill and private policy institutions.