Prosperity Through Growth

ProsperityThrough Growth is aprimer for reviving the UK economy, co-authored by some of our finest economicminds: celebrated US economist Dr Arthur B. Laffer, inventor of the Laffercurve; policy campaigner Matthew Elliott; businessman Michael Hintze; andfounder of the Centre for Economics and Business Research Douglas McWilliams.Itbegins by setting out the principles of ideal economic policy – the ‘NorthStar’ of prosperity through growth – and applies them to the UK’s currentposition. The thinking takes account of the age of autocracy and AI, in whichpolitical decisions in democracies are constrained and talented andentrepreneurial people are increasingly mobile, making economic incentives evenmore important.Thefinal section draws on interviews with more than thirty economicdecision-makers from the worlds of business, politics and the civil service,including five Prime Ministers and nine Chancellors. The interviews giveinsights into the economic and political causes of low growth and provide astrategy for implementing a pro-growth agenda.Speciallycommissioned research shows how the UK is forecast to slide down the league tableof GDP per capita over the next twenty-five years. The book argues that such aslide is not inevitable and outlines a fully costed and modelled ‘24/7 GrowthPlan’ to show how the decline can be averted.

DrArthur B. Laffer,founder of Laffer Associates, is known as ‘The Father of Supply-SideEconomics’. He advised both President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher onfiscal policy. In 1999, Time named him one of ‘the Century’s GreatestMinds’ for creating the Laffer curve. He received the Presidential Medal ofFreedom in 2019, the highest civilian honour awarded by the United States, forhis contributions to economics.MatthewElliott is one of theUK’s foremost public policy thinkers, having set up numerous policy campaigns,including the TaxPayers’ Alliance in 2003. He has overseen two successfulnational referendum campaigns – the NOtoAV campaign in 2011 and the Vote Leavecampaign in 2016 – and convened two influential policy commissions. He iscurrently the co-founder and president of the Jobs Foundation, a charity whichchampions the role of business as a force for good. Matthew is also a member ofthe House of Lords, where he sits as Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell. MichaelHintze is a financierand businessman. He has held positions in Credit Suisse First Boston, GoldmanSachs and Salomon Brothers, before founding CQS Investment Management andDeltroit Asset Management. He also served as an officer in the Australian Army.Lord Hintze’s philanthropy spans contributions to the arts, religiouscharities, military charities and education. He was made a Knight Commander ofthe Order of St Gregory by Pope Benedict XVI and was subsequently elevated tothe rank of Knight Grand Cross. He was appointed a Member of the Order ofAustralia in 2008 and was made a Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II. In2022, he was granted a life peerage by King Charles III and sits in the Houseof Lords as Baron Hintze.DouglasMcWilliams sold theCentre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), the economics consultancythat he had founded thirty-five years earlier, in autumn 2024 to a managementbuyout. Cebr has become well known, especially for its World Economic LeagueTable published on Boxing Day each year. Before setting up Cebr, he had beenchief economic adviser to the CBI and chief economist for IBM UK. Douglas hadalso chaired the Economics Committee of what is now called Business Europe inBrussels. While running Cebr, he was also the Gresham Professor of Commerce,and today he remains a member of the Growth Commission. Among his books, thebest known are The Flat White Economy, about the emerging UK techeconomy, and The Inequality Paradox, where he refutes Thomas Piketty’stheory of exploitation.