James Edward Meade (June 23 1907, Swanage, Dorset - December 22 1995, Cambridge) was a British economist and winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Economics jointly with the Swedish economist Bertil Ohlin for their "Pathbreaking contribution to the theory of international trade and international capital movements."

Meade was educated at Malvern College and attended Oriel College, Oxford in 1926 to read Greats, but switched to Philosophy, Politics and Economics and gained an outstanding first. His interest in economics grew from an influential postgraduate year at Trinity College, Cambridge (1930-1), where he held frequent discussions with leading economists of the time including Dennis Robertson and John Maynard Keynes.

After working in the League of Nations and the Cabinet Office, he was the leading economist of the early years of Attlee's government, before taking professorships at LSE (1947-57) and Cambridge (1957-67).

His many books include:

• The Theory of International Economic Policy -- The Balance of Payments (1951)
• The Theory of International Economic Policy -- Trade and Welfare (1955)
• Principles of Political Economy (1965-76)
• The Intelligent Radical's Guide To Economic Policy (1975)