Robert J. Barro, the Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University, will give the BB&T Distinguished Lecture at 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 21, in the Alumni Assembly Hall of the Holtzman Alumni Center at Virginia Tech.

Barro’s talk, “The Job-Filled Non-Recovery,” is hosted by the Pamplin College of Business and part of its BB&T Distinguished Lecture Series on Capitalism.

The event is free and open to the public; no tickets are required. 

Barro is also a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution of Stanford University and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

He 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 is a former columnist for Business Week and a former contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal.

Barro has written extensively on macroeconomics and economic growth. His research includes empirical determinants of economic growth, economic effects of public debt and budget deficits, and the formation of monetary policy.

His 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. 

Barro has a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and a B.S. in physics from Caltech.

The BB&T lecture series is part of a Pamplin teaching program to explore the foundations of capitalism and freedom. The program’s undergraduate and graduate courses examine alternative economic systems, including socialism and communism, and compare them with the economic solutions offered by free markets.

The program was established in 2007 in the college’s finance department with a $1 million gift from BB&T Charitable Foundation. For more information, please contact finance professor and program director Douglas Patterson.

Free parking is available at the Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center.

Find more parking information online, or call 540-231-3200. If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Leanne Brownlee-Bowen at 540-231-7251 or email lbrownle@vt.edu during regular business hours at least 7 business days prior to the event.

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