Panel Discussion: Tax Policy and Economic Growth in Kentucky

Arthur B. 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. Dr. Laffer was a member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board for both of his two terms. He also advised Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on fiscal policy in the UK. Dr. Laffer received a B.A. in economics from Yale University. He received an MBA and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University. He was formerly the Distinguished University Professor at Pepperdine University and a member of the Pepperdine Board of Directors. He was also the Charles B. Thornton Professor of Business Economics at the University of Southern California and an Associate Professor of Business Economics at the University of Chicago.

William Hoyt is a Gatton Endowed Professor and the Department of Economics Chair in the Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky. William Hoyt’s research focuses on issues in public economics, with particular emphasis on state and local public finance and cost-benefit analysis of public programs. Dr. Hoyt’s current research includes work on fiscal competition, the impacts of state and local tax policies on employment, the impacts of tax policies on housing markets, educational choice plans and crossover in the use of poverty programs. Dr. Hoyt has served as Principal Investigator on projects funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the United States Department of Agriculture (Economic Research Service). He is a research associate at the Center for Economic Studies (Munich, Germany) and Editor of the Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis. He has served on numerous advisory boards for the Commonwealth of Kentucky and was previously on the editorial board of the Journal of Urban Economics.

Christopher R. Bollinger is a Gatton Professor of Economics and the Director of the Center of Business and Economic Research in the Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky. He received his B.A. in Economics at Michigan State University and earned both an M.S. and Ph.D. in economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Professor Bollinger's research has focused on measurement error in estimation of micro economic models.

Jason Bailey the is founder and Executive Director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. He is the author of numerous reports and analyses of economic and fiscal issues facing the Commonwealth going back to 1998. Jason appears frequently in the media and is a regular speaker to civic organizations on policies that would move Kentucky forward. His public service includes appointments to the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Tax Reform and the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System Funding Work Group. He has a master’s in public administration with a specialization in public finance from New York University and a bachelor’s degree from Carson-Newman College.