Robert J Barro

Robert J. Barro is Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University, a visiting scholar at American Enterprise Institute, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. 

He has a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and a B.S. in physics from Caltech. 

Barro is co-editor of Harvard’s Quarterly Journal of Economics and was previously President of the Western Economic Association, Vice President of the American Economic Association, a viewpoint columnist for Business Week, and a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal.  Noteworthy research includes empirical determinants of economic growth, economic effects of public debt and budget deficits, and the economics of religion. 

Current research focuses on the impact of rare disasters on asset markets and macroeconomic activity, with recent applications to environmental protection, quantities of safe assets, and pricing of stock options.  Books include Religion and Economics (with Rachel McCleary, forthcoming), Economic Growth (2nd edition, with Xavier Sala-i-Martin); Macroeconomics; Nothing Is Sacred: Economic Ideas for the New Millennium; Determinants of Economic Growth; Getting It Right: Markets and Choices in a Free Society; and Education and Modernization Worldwide, from the 19th to the 21st Century (with Jong-Wha Lee).