Getting it Right by Robert J Barro

Getting it Right by Robert J Barro

Since 1991, Robert Barro has been a lively contributor to the Wall Street Journal and other popular financial media. Getting It Right brings together, updates, and expands upon these writings that showcase Barro's agility in applying economic understanding to a wide array of social issues. Barro, a conservative who takes no prisoners, and a self-described libertarian, believes that most governments have gone much too far in their spending, taxation, and regulation. The dominant theme in these wide-ranging essays is the importance of institutions that ensure property rights and free markets. The discussion deals especially with the appropriate range of government: which areas represent useful public policy and which are unnecessary interference. The first section of the book considers these questions in the context of the determinants of long-run economic growth. In addition to basic economics, Barro assesses related political topics, such as the role of public institutions, the optimal size of countries, and the consequences of default on foreign debt. The second section deals with the proper role and form of monetary policy. Barro argues that government should provide markets with a stable nominal framework and then stay out of the way to best allow for price stability. Writings in the third section cover fiscal and other macroeconomic policies. Topics include the distorting influences of taxation, especially taxes on capital income; infrastructure investment and other government spending; and the consequences of public debt and budget deficits. In a final section, Barro looks at more micro issues such as cartels, tax amnesties, school choice, privatization, cigarette-smoking regulation, endangered species regulation, the market for baseball players, and term limits for politicians.

Robert J. Barro is Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University, a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, 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 was recently President of the Western Economic Association and Vice President of the American Economic Association. He was a viewpoint columnist for Business Week from 1998 to 2006 and a contributing editor of The Wall
Street Journal from 1991 to 1998.

Jong-Wha Lee is a professor of economics and director of the Asiatic Research Institute at Korea University. He served as a senior adviser for international economic affairs to President of South Korea. He was also previously Chief Economist and Head of the Office of Regional Economic Integration at
the Asian Development Bank and an economist at the International Monetary Fund. He has taught at Australian National University, Harvard Univeristy, and Peking University. He has contributed to Project Syndicate since 2012. He obtained his Ph.D. and Master's degrees in Economics from Harvard
University, and his Master's and Bachelor's degrees in economics from Korea University.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780262024082
ISBN 10	026202408X
Title	Getting it Right
Author	Robert J Barro
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	MIT Press Ltd
Year published	1996-04-11
Number of pages	207
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable