Deriving the Laguerre equation from Rodrigues' formula ($x{L}_n^{\prime \prime }+(1-x)L_n^{\prime }+n{L}_n=0$)

Set $v=x^n{e}^{-x}$. Direct differentiation gives $x{v}^{\prime }=(n-x)v$. Apply the Leibniz rule to differentiate $n+1$ times:Hence $x{v}^{(n+2)}+(x+1)v^{(n+1)}+(n+1)v^{(n)}=0$. By Rodrigues' formula, $v^{(n)}=n!e^{-x}{L}_n$, so the next two derivatives are $n!e^{-x}(L_n^{\prime }-L_n)$ and $n!e^{-x}(L_n^{\prime \prime }-2L_n^{\prime }+L_n)$. Substitution gives the displayed Laguerre differential operator on polynomials eigenvalue equation. This derivation also covers $n=0$.