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Robert Zelwin Aliber (born September 19, 1930) is a professor emeritus of International Economics and Finance at the University of Chicago. He is best known for his contribution to the theory of foreign direct investment. He has given the concept of foreign exchange rate in foreign direct investment. Aliber argues that a multinational corporation from hard currency area can borrow at lower rates in a soft currency country than can local firms.
Aliber received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College (1952) and Bachelor of Arts (1954) and a Master of Arts (1957) from Cambridge University. He received his Ph. D. from Yale University. He has been a staff economist at the Commission on Money and Credit (1959–61) and at the Committee for Economic Development (1961–64). Aliber served as a senior economic advisor at the United States Agency for International Development (1964–65). He was appointed as an associate professor at the University of Chicago in 1964.
He is mentioned in Michael Lewis' book Travels in the New Third World as having predicted the Icelandic financial crisis several years before it happened.