Prosperity Through Growth (LSE Event with Economist Art Laffer)

Join us for this event about Dr Arthur B. Laffer’s new book, Prosperity through Growth: Boosting living standards in an Age of Autocracy and AI, co-authored with Matthew Elliott, Michael Hintze and Douglas McWilliams, which is being published at the end of October. The book sets out the 'North Star' for growth, based on recent economic history, and then applies this to the UK specifically.

Specially commissioned research for the book shows how the UK is forecast to slide down the global league table of GDP per capita from 30th position in 2024 to a forecast 48th position in 2050, overtaken by Poland in 2034 and by Turkey in 2043. The book argues that such a slide is not inevitable and outlines the policy changes that would prevent it.

The book draws on 33 interviews with leading figures from the world of business and politics, including 5 former Prime Ministers and 9 former Chancellors, to show how implementing these policies is perfectly possible with political leadership.

Details:

6.30-8pm, 22 Oct 2025

Old Theatre, Old Building, LSE

Meet our speakers and chair

Dr Arthur B. Laffer, founder of Laffer Associates, is known as ‘The Father of Supply-Side Economics’. He advised both President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher on fiscal policy. In 1999, Time named him one of ‘the Century’s Greatest Minds’ for creating the Laffer curve. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019, the highest civilian honour awarded by the United States, for his contributions to economics.

Matthew Elliott is a graduate of the London School of Economics, and one of the UK’s foremost public policy thinkers, having set up numerous policy campaigns, including the TaxPayers’ Alliance in 2003, and overseen two successful national referendum campaigns (NOtoAV in 2011 and Vote Leave in 2016). He is the co-founder and President of the Jobs Foundation, and sits in the House of Lords as Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell.

Prof. Luis Garicano is a Full Professor at the School of Public Policy. He started his academic career at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he attained the rank of full professor in Economics and Strategy after 10 years on the faculty and then at the London School of Economics, where he has been Full Professor in Economics and Strategy at the departments of Economics and Management of the school and head of the Managerial Economics and Strategy Group; in addition, he has been visiting professor at other institutions, among others MIT, Columbia Business School and the London Business School. He has held positions as an economist of the European Commission and McKinsey & Company, where he has also held a named chair with the FEDEA foundation.