Robert Barro
The BB&T Distinguished Lecture Series
September 21, 2016 • 3:30 pm
Robert J. Barro is a Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University, a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, 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 recently President of the Western Economic Association and Vice President of the American Economic Association. He was a viewpoint columnist for Business Week from 1998 to 2006 and a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal from 1991 to 1998.
Noteworthy research includes empirical determinants of economic growth, economic effects of public debt and budget deficits, and the formation of monetary policy. 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 Macroeconomics: A Modern Approach, Economic Growth (2nd edition, with Xavier Sala-i-Martin), 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).