Profesor en la Universidad de Harvard, es uno de los economistas actuales más citados en las revistas del "Index".
Sus primeros trabajos, a comienzos de los setenta, estaban en la línea de los post-keynesianos, Leijonhufvud y Clower. A mediados de la década de los setenta, se une a Lucas en el desarrollo y análisis de las consecuencias de la hipótesis de las expectativas racionales. Junto a la corriente de la Nueva Economía Clásica, trabaja en modelos de imposición óptima, política monetaria, análisis de los ciclos y teoría del crecimiento.
"Éste puede ser considerado el primer libro de
texto moderno dedicado a la teoría del crecimiento económico" (The
Economist, 17-02-1996)
Barro y Sala-i-Martin explican y analizan con claridad y
sofisticada formalización matemática los desarrollos teóricos y
estudios empíricos sobre el crecimiento económico de los últimos treinta años.
"Unanticipated Money, Output, and the Price Level in the United States", 1978, JPE.
"Comment from an Unreconstructed Ricardian", 1978, JME
Impact of Social Security on Private Saving: Evidence from the U.S. time series, 1978.
"Social Security and Consumer Spending in an International Cross-Section", con G.M. MacDonald, 1979, J Public Econ
"Money and the Price Level under the Gold Standard", 1979, EJ
"On the Determination of the Public Debt", 1979, JPE.
"Federal Deficit Policy and the Effects of Public Debt Shocks", 1980, JMCB
"A Capital Market in an Equilibrium Business Cycle Model", 1980, Econometrica.
"Unanticipated Money and Economic Activity" con M. Rush, 1980, in Fischer, editor, Rational Expectations.
"Money Stock Revisions and Unanticipated Money Growth", con Z. Hercowitz, 1980, JME
Money, Expectations and Business Cycles, 1981.
"Output Effects of Government Purchases", 1981, JPE
"Rules, Discretion and Reputation in a Model of Monetary Policy", con D.B. Gordon, 1983, JME.
"A Positive Theory of Monetary Policy in a Natural Rate Model", con D.B. Gordon, 1983, JPE.
"Inflationary Finance under Discretion and Rules", 1983, Canadian JE.
"Time-Separable Preferences and Intertemporal Substitution Models of Business Cycles", con R.G. King, 1984, QJE
Macroeconomics, 1984.
"Reputation in a Model of Monetary Policy with Incomplete Information", 1986, JME.
"Recent Developments in the Theory of Rules versus Discretion", 1986, EJ
"U.S. Deficits since World War I", 1986, Scandanavian JE
"Average Marginal Tax Rates from Social Security and the Individual Income Tax", con C. Sahasakul, 1986, J of Business.
"Government Spending, Interest Rates, Prices and Budget Deficits in the United Kingdom, 1701-1918", 1987, JME
"A Reformulation of the Economic theory of Fertility", con G.S. Becker, 1988, QJE.
"The Neoclassical Approach to Fiscal Policy", 1989, in Barro, editor, Modern Business Cycle Theory.
"The Ricardian Approach to Budget Deficits", 1989, JEP
"Interest Rate Targeting", 1989, JME
"The Stock Market and Investment", 1990, Review of Financial Studies
"World Real Interest Rates", con Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 1990, NBER Macroeconomics Annual
"Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth", 1990, JPE
"Economic Growth in a Cross-Section of Countries", 1991, QJE
"A Cross Country Study of Growth, Saving and Government", 1991, in Bernheim and Shoven, editors, National Saving and Econ Performance