LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 5, 2017) — Tax reform discussions are taking place in our nation’s capital and in state capitals across the country, including Frankfort, Ky.
Amid this backdrop, the Schnatter Institute at University of Kentucky’s Gatton College of Business and Economics is hosting noted economist and tax policy analyst Arthur B. “Art” Laffer as part of a 90-minute panel discussion in the college’s Kincaid Auditorium 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7.
Most experts believe that tax policy is central to the commonwealth’s economic growth. In light of growing pension spending commitments and other mandated financial expenditures, the panel will explore the pros and cons of different tax reform proposals.
Schnatter Institute Director Aaron Yelowitz said, “It’s important, especially in a university setting, to explore a wide range of ideas. This event will be an open dialogue where we encourage those with different views about tax policy to converse with each other and the audience.”
Laffer will be joined on the panel by UK economists Bill Hoyt and Chris Bollinger, along with Jason Bailey of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (KCEP). UK economist and founding director of the Schnatter Institute John Garen will serve as moderator.
Laffer is the founder and chairman of Laffer Associates, an institutional economic research and consulting firm that focuses on the interconnecting macroeconomic, political and demographic changes affecting global financial markets. Laffer was a member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board for both of Reagan’s terms (1981-1989). He also advised Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on fiscal policy in the United Kingdom during the 1980s.
Prior to founding his own firm, Laffer earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Yale University and his master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from Stanford University. As a faculty member at Pepperdine University, he was selected as Distinguished University Professor and served on the Pepperdine Board of Directors. He also held the status of Charles B. Thornton Professor of Business Economics at the University of Southern California. Earlier, he was a business economics faculty member at the University of Chicago for nine years.
Hoyt is Gatton Endowed Chair of the Department of Economics; Bollinger is Gatton Endowed Professor of Economics and director of the Center for Business and Economic Research CBER); Bailey is founder and executive director of KCEP, and holds a master’s degree in public administration with a specialization in public finance from New York University; and Garen is the BB&T Professor of Economics at Gatton.
The event is co-sponsored by the BB&T Program for the Study of Capitalism and the John H. Schnatter Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise. The University of Kentucky’s Schnatter Institute enhances public understanding of the connections among free enterprise, markets and individual freedom through rigorous research and open dialogue.
The public is welcome to attend and admission is free.
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