Jason M. Barr is an American economist and author at Rutgers University-Newark, whose work is in the field of "skynomics", the study of skyscrapers and skylines using modern economics methods.^[1][2][3][4] He is the author of Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan's Skyscrapers, which chronicled the history of the Manhattan skyline from an economic perspective.^[5][6] Barr's work is interdisciplinary and integrates multiple disciplines including urban studies, geography, and economic history. Barr is one of the few economists studying the intersection of economics and skyscraper construction.

Barr earned his B.S. from Cornell University in 1992, his M.F.A. in creative writing from Emerson College in 1995 and his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University in 2002.^[7]

Barr has conducted research in Changchun, China, and at the Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Économiques. He also received grants from the Land Economic Foundation, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, and the WCF/National Park Service. Dr. Barr is an affiliated faculty member with the Global Urban Systems Ph.D. program. His research interests include urban economics and agent-based computational economics. Dr. Barr serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, the Eastern Economic Journal and the Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination.

Barr's work has addressed widely held myths or misconceptions about skyscrapers and cities.^{[8][9][10][11]} For example, research performed by Barr and his colleagues showed that there was no evidence for the Skyscraper Curse, that the completion of the world's tallest building is a herald of an economic crisis.^[12][13] Barr has also debunked the misconception that Manhattan's geological conditions have been the reason there are few skyscrapers between lower Manhattan and Midtown.^{[14][15][16][17][18]} Rather, Barr's work demonstrates that Midtown's origin was due to the city's demographic evolution and the fact that Manhattan is a long, but narrow, island that concentrated economic activity to a much greater degree, as compared to other cities.^[19][20] Barr has also written extensively on zoning in the United States including the role of Robert Moses and the City Planning Commission creating the current NYC zones.

Barr is an advocate of land reclamation projects such as those seen in Hong Kong and the Netherlands. He is also an advocate of Lower Manhattan expansion. On January 14, 2022 Barr wrote an opinion article in the New York Times^[21] which proposed the expansion of Manhattan Island.^{[22][23][24][25]} This "New Mannahatta" project proposal was met with criticism from readers despite the project being quite similar to other already completed projects around the world. Among other academics and city planners Barr's project was met with greater enthusiasm.

• Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan's Skyscrapers. Oxford University Press, 2016. ISBN 978-0199344369
• Economic Drivers: Skyscrapers in China. Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, 2017. ISBN 978-0939493555.