James is the Distinguished Professor of Economics and Ethics at Loyola Marymount University, USA, and former Chair of Economics and Ethics at Kiel University, Germany.

His research and teaching specialty is economics and ethics, which he has taught at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. His research includes experimental and theoretical analyses and is informed by economics, philosophy, and psychology. It has been published in economics journals including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Literature, and the Journal of Public Economics, as well as in various interdisciplinary journals in philosophy, psychology, and sociology.