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James K. Boyce

Professor Emeritus of Economics and Senior Fellow, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Chapter Member: Boston SSN

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About James

Boyce’s areas of expertise include environmental policy, U.S. climate policy, and environmental justice. His scholarship also focuses on the economics of developing countries, including capital flight and the political economy of war-to-peace transitions. Boyce has served as a member of the Economic and Allocation Advisory Committee for the California Global Warming Solutions Act, California Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board, as well as the Economists Advisory Council of the Financial Transparency Coalition. He has written for Harper’s, Scientific American, Politico, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and numerous scholarly journals. Boyce received the 2017 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

As the Climate Changes, Adaptation Becomes Imperative

Basic Facts Brief,

No Jargon Podcast

Episode 12:
The Price for Parking Your Car(bon)

In the News

Regular contributions by James K. Boyce to The Institute for New Economic Thinking: The Economics of War & Peace.
Opinion: "It’s Never Too Late to Take Climate Action," James K. Boyce, Scientific American, April 5, 2024.
Opinion: "Why the Inflation Rate Isn’t as Bad as You Think," James K. Boyce, OP-EDS, The Progressive Magazine, November 8, 2022.
Opinion: "Biden Trip to Saudi Arabia Shows Fossil Fuel Dependence Is a Recipe for Misery," James K. Boyce, Opinion, USA Today, June 17, 2022.
Opinion: "Stop Enabling Kleptocrats: More Must Be Done To Stem the Influx of Dirty Money to West," James K. Boyce (with Leonce Ndikumana), The Hill, March 18, 2022.
Interviewed in "How Inequality Increases Environmental Damage for Everyone (But Not Equally)," The Real News Network, November 27, 2018.
Opinion: "Carbon Dividends: The Bipartisan Key to Climate Policy?," James K. Boyce, Institute for New Economic Thinking, February 13, 2017.
Quoted by David Roberts in "The Political Hurdles Facing a Carbon Tax - and How to Overcome Them," Vox, April 26, 2016.
Opinion: "Crunch Time for the Climate," James K. Boyce, Huffington Post, March 17, 2016.
Guest on Real News Network, December 14, 2015.
Opinion: "What's More Important: Money or People?," James K. Boyce, Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, January 3, 2015.
Opinion: "Amid Climate Change, What's More Important: Protecting Money or People?," James K. Boyce, Los Angeles Times, December 21, 2014.
Interviewed in "New Research Shows Pollution Inequality in America is Even Worse than Income Inequality," Institute for New Economic Thinking, September 29, 2014.
Opinion: "The Carbon Dividend," James K. Boyce, New York Times, July 30, 2014.
Opinion: "Climate Policy as Wealth Creation," James K. Boyce, Dollars & Sense, July 9, 2014.
Regular contributions by James K. Boyce to Triple Crisis.

Publications

"Clearing the Air: Incorporating Air Quality and Environmental Justice into Climate Policy" (with Manuel Pastor). Climatic Change 102, no. 4 (2013): 801-814.

Presents evidence on intersectoral, intrasectoral and spatial variations in co-pollutant intensity of industrial point sources in the United States, and discusses options for integrating co-benefits into climate policy design to advance efficiency and equity.

Economics, the Environment and Our Common Wealth (Edward Elgar, 2013).
Analyzes the implications for environmental policy of the principle that a clean and safe environment is not a commodity to be allocated on the basis of purchasing power, nor a privilege to be allocated through political power, but rather a basic human right.
Africa’s Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent (with Léonce Ndikumana). (Zed Books, 2011).
Debunks the myth that Africa is a drain on the West's finances, arguing that the continent is a net creditor to the rest of the world.
Natural Assets: Democratizing Environmental Ownership (with Barry G. Shelley). (Island Press, 2003).
Argues that safeguarding the environment and building the wealth of low-income communities and individuals can go together, drawing on evidence from across the United States.
Investing in Peace: Aid and Conditionality after Civil Wars (Oxford University Press, 2002).
Analyzes aid to countries emerging from civil war, drawing on experiences of El Salvador, Bosnia, Guatemala and Cambodia.
The Political Economy of the Environment (Edward Elgar, 2002).
Examines the dynamics of environmental degradation in terms of balances of power between winners and losers.