His research spans a variety of topics in public economics, including the economics of taxation and environmental economics. His current research is focused on evaluating policy alternatives for increasing the fuel economy of new vehicles in the United States. James teaches courses on policy approaches to mitigating climate change, U.S. tax policy and empirical methods at the Harris School. He was the 2008 recipient of the National Tax Association Dissertation Award and the 2009 recipient of the John V. Krutilla Research Award. He completed his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan in 2008. He also holds a B.A. in economics and political science from Macalester College.