In "The Wealth of Religions," Robert Barro and Rachel McCleary explore the complex relationship between religious beliefs, practices, and economic outcomes. The authors investigate how religious adherence influences work ethic, savings behavior, and societal values. They analyze the impact of religious institutions on economic development and social cohesion. The book challenges conventional wisdom by examining the nuances of religious influence on economic growth. It offers a comprehensive analysis of the interplay between faith and economic prosperity across diverse cultures and historical periods.
Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson argue that the success or failure of nations is determined by their political and economic institutions. They present a comprehensive theory based on 15 years of research, using historical examples from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, the Soviet Union, and various other regions to demonstrate how inclusive institutions foster economic growth and prosperity, while extractive institutions lead to poverty and stagnation. The authors discuss critical questions such as China's economic growth, the future of the United States, and the most effective ways to help countries move from poverty to prosperity[1][4][5].
In this influential book, Milton Friedman discusses the role of economic capitalism in a liberal society. He argues that economic freedom is a precondition for political freedom and advocates for limited government intervention. The book covers various topics, including the relation between economic and political freedom, the role of government in a free society, monetary policy, international trade arrangements, and the role of government in education. Friedman's work has been highly influential in economic theory and policymaking, and the book has been translated into eighteen languages and sold over half a million copies since its publication in 1962.
In this book, Jared Diamond explains why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered others. He argues that differences in societal development arise primarily from geographical causes. The book details how agricultural societies developed immunities to deadly diseases, advanced in technology, and formed centralized political structures, ultimately leading to the conquest of other societies. Diamond also discusses the impact of germs, domesticated animals, and environmental factors on human history[2][4][5].
Jon Hartley and Robert Barro discuss Robert’s career in economics including his long list of famous students, and research on Ricardian equivalence, fiscal theory of the price level, government spending multipliers, business cycles and the legacy of New Keynesian modeling, economic growth, political economy, the interplay between religion and economics, and much more.
Recorded on March 18, 2025.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Robert J. Barro is a Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University, a visiting scholar at the 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 has been 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. He has written extensively on macroeconomics and economic growth.
Recent research involves rare macroeconomic disasters, corporate tax reform, religion & economy, empirical determinants of economic growth, and economic effects of public debt and budget deficits. Recent books include The Wealth of Religions: The Political Economy of Believing and Belonging (with Rachel M. McCleary), Economic Growth (2nd edition, with Xavier Sala-i-Martin), Nothing Is Sacred: Economic Ideas for the New Millennium, Determinants of Economic Growth, and Getting It Right: Markets and Choices in a Free Society.
Jon Hartley is currently a Policy Fellow at the Hoover Institution, an economics PhD Candidate at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and an Affiliated Scholar at the Mercatus Center. Jon also is the host of the Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century Podcast, an official podcast of the Hoover Institution, a member of the Canadian Group of Economists, and the chair of the Economic Club of Miami.
Jon has previously worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management as a Fixed Income Portfolio Construction and Risk Management Associate and as a Quantitative Investment Strategies Client Portfolio Management Senior Analyst and in various policy/governmental roles at the World Bank, IMF, Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the Bank of Canada.
Jon has also been a regular economics contributor for National Review Online, Forbes and The Huffington Post and has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star among other outlets. Jon has also appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, Bloomberg, and NBC and was named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Law & Policy list, the 2017 Wharton 40 Under 40 list and was previously a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.
ABOUT THE SERIES:
Each episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century, a video podcast series and the official podcast of the Hoover Economic Policy Working Group, focuses on getting into the weeds of economics, finance, and public policy on important current topics through one-on-one interviews. Host Jon Hartley asks guests about their main ideas and contributions to academic research and policy. The podcast is titled after Milton Friedman‘s famous 1962 bestselling book Capitalism and Freedom, which after 60 years, remains prescient from its focus on various topics which are now at the forefront of economic debates, such as monetary policy and inflation, fiscal policy, occupational licensing, education vouchers, income share agreements, the distribution of income, and negative income taxes, among many other topics.
For more information, visit: capitalismandfreedom.substack.com/
The Capitalism and Freedom in the Twenty-First Century Podcast 
