James Hartley

  • Professor of Economics
James Hartley

James Hartley is Professor of Economics at Mount Holyoke College, where he teaches Macroeconomic Theory, Money and Banking, and Principles of Economics among other economics courses. Outside of the Economics Department, he has also taught multiple courses using the Great Books, including “Western Civilization: An Introduction Through the Great Books,” “Leadership and the Liberal Arts,” “Is Business Moral?” (developed with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities), “Reflections on War,” “C.S. Lewis,” and numerous tutorials and reading groups on the Western Canon.

A California native, he earned his B.A., M.A, and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Davis. In 2001, he spent six months as a Fulbright Fellow in Kolkata, India, and returned to India a second time for six months in 2006 as a visiting professor at IISWBM (India’s oldest business school) and giving talks throughout in Northeastern India in events organized by the US Consulate.

He has served as the Interim Executive Director of Mount Holyoke’s Professional and Graduate Education division, the Director of First Year Seminars, a member of the Advisory Committee on Appointments, Reappointments, and Promotion, and the Chair of the Economics Department. He received the Mount Holyoke College faculty Award for Teaching and his publications include The Representative Agent in Macroeconomics, Real Business Cycles: A Reader (co-edited with Kevin Hoover and Kevin Salyer), and Mary Lyon: Documents and Writings.

Areas of Expertise

Macroeconomics, Business Cycles, Money and Banking, the Great Books of Western Civilization

Education

  • Ph.D., M.A., B.A., University of California

HAPPENING AT MOUNT HOLYOKE

Recent Campus News

Suchi Saria ’04 named a Time100 AI 2026 innovator

Mount Holyoke College alum Suchi Saria ’04 was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in AI 2026 for her work on a sepsis-flagging device.

Looking back and moving forward at Convocation

Senior Paloma De La Caridad Ortega ’27 reflects on what makes Mount Holyoke unique at the semester’s opening ceremony.

Meet Mount Holyoke’s newest directors in Student Affairs

New directors Kris “knp” Nolan-Parker and Lauren Collier are leading Residential Life and Disability Services within Mount Holyoke’s Division of Student Affairs.

Recent Grants

James Hartley (Economics) received a grant from the Institute for Humane Studies for a student reading group in the fall. The project is for 4.5 months.

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