James K. Boyce is an author, naturalist, economist, and senior fellow at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he is also Professor Emeritus of Economics.

Jim grew up in Michigan. He received his B.A. at Yale University and his doctorate from Oxford University.

He began his professional career as a development economist, after having lived and worked in India and Bangladesh prior to graduate school. As a Fulbright Scholar at the Universidad Nacional in Costa Rica, he helped establish a master’s program in sustainable development and ecological economics for Central America and the Caribbean. He led the Adjustment Toward Peace project for the United Nations Development Program in postwar El Salvador, and received a MacArthur Foundation fellowship for research and writing on the economics of peacebuilding.

He has written for Harper’s, Scientific American, Politico, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and numerous scholarly journals, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Ecological Economics, Environmental Research Letters, and Climatic Change.

Jim received the 2017 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought and the 2011 Fair Sharing of the Common Heritage Award from Project Censored and the Media Freedom Foundation.

Read an interview about Jim’s career here.

By this expert

Freedom from Fossil Fuels is Good for Your Health

Article | Feb 20, 2020

Freeing ourselves from reliance on fossil fuels is not only good for the planet and future generations. It also saves lives here and now, not just in the far future.

Keeping the Oil in the Soil

Article | Jul 22, 2019

The central goal of any serious climate policy is to keep fossil fuels in the ground. The central question is how.

The humble economist

Paper Conference paper | | Oct 2017

What economics can – and can’t – tell us about climate change 

America Last

Article | Jun 8, 2017

Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris accord sets the US economy back

Featuring this expert

The Economics of War & Peace

Video | Oct 16, 2024

Economics can either fuel conflict or pave the way to lasting peace, the choice is ours.

The War Machine

Video | Oct 9, 2024

If we want durable peace, we need to look for more than just economic expansion.

A Plan for Earth’s Survival that Can Survive U.S. Politics?

Article | Jul 30, 2019

Economist James K. Boyce explains how to fight climate change and rising income inequality in one shot

What Role Should Economists Play in Climate Policy?

Video | May 30, 2018

Economist James K. Boyce argues that the distribution of carbon tax revenue is just as important as the price itself