On the Origin of the Laff er Curve

Abstract

In 1974 Arthur Laffer sketched his famous curve on a restaurant napkin. Jude Wanniski gave the curve Laffer’s name and popularized it in 1978. Nowadays the Laffer curve is part of most economics textbooks and essential argument in tax debates. In this paper we present less known citations on the relation between the tax rate and the tax revenue of Milton Friedman, John Maynard Keynes, and Adam Smith who uttered the idea lying behind the Laffer curve long time before Arthur Laffer.

Keywords

• laff er curve
• taxation
• history of economic thought