James Edward Meade FBA (23 June 1907 – 22 December 1995) was a British economist who made major contributions to the theory of international trade and welfare economics.

Along with Richard Kahn, James Meade helped develop the concept of the Keynesian multiplier while participating in the Cambridge circus.

In the 1930s, he served as specialist adviser on behalf of the British government at the Economic and Financial Organization of the League of Nations.

[3]: 477 Born in Swanage, Meade was brought up in Bath, and educated at Lambrook prep school, Malvern College and Oriel College, Oxford, where he read classics till 1928 before switching to the newly-established course in philosophy, politics, and economics.

[7] Along with the Swedish economist Bertil Ohlin, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1977 "for their pathbreaking contribution to the theory of international trade and international capital movements".