Professor Robert J. Barro is the Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University, a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, a viewpoint columnist for Business Week, a frequent contributor to Wall Street Journal, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is President of the Western Economic Association and was recently elected as Vice President of the American Economic Association.

Professor Barro has written extensively on topics in macroeconomics, economic growth, and monetary policy. His 1974 paper "Are Government Bonds Net Wealth?" created what is known as the "Ricardian Equivalence Hypothesis". This article may be the most commonly cited article in macroeconomics. His 1976 paper "Rational Expectations and the Role of Monetary Policy" is also very well known.

His recent famous books include Nothing Is Sacred: Economic Ideas for the New Millennium; Determinants of Economic Growth, a Cross-Country Empirical Study; and Getting It Right: Markets and Choices in a Free Society. He is currently working on a new version of Macroeconomics. Outside of the academia, Professor Barro is well known for his columns in Wall Street Journal and Business Week.