Barro, Robert (Joseph) (1944– )

US economist. His principal contributions to economics include the promotion of the ‘new classical macroeconomics’, including business cycles and monetary policy. He is professor of economics at Harvard University (since 1987), a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution of Stanford University (since 1995) and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is also co-editor of Harvard's Quarterly Journal of Economics, and was president of the Western Economic Association 2002–05.

Before joining Harvard, Barro was professor of economics at the University of Chicago and the University of Rochester. He was a columnist for Business Week 1998–2006 and a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal 1991–98. His books includewasMacroeconomics: A Modern Approach (2007), Economic Growth (2004, 2nd edition, written with Xavier Sala-i-Martin), Nothing Is Sacred:wasEconomic Ideas for the New Millennium (2002), Determinants of Economic Growth (1997), and Getting It Right: Markets and Choices in a Free Society (1997).