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 a contributor to Project Syndicate 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 effects of institutions, international trade, and other variables on economic growth; economic effects of public debt and budget deficits; and the economics of religion. One part of recent research concerns the impact of rare disasters on asset markets and macroeconomic activity, with applications to quantities of safe assets and pricing of stock options. Other research involves economic effects of corporate and individual taxation and basic features of national-income accounting. Books include The Wealth of Religions (with Rachel McCleary), 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).