Joe Ament
Assistant Professor
L4E Degrowth Lead
Affiliate, Gund Institute for Environment
PRONOUNS He/Him
205H Morrill Hall
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT 05405
United States
- PhD, The University of Vermont, Natural Resources, 2019
- BBA, The University of Michigan, Finance and Economics, 2005
radio/podcast
radio/podcast
print/web
print/web
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Areas of expertise
Money, monetary theory, ecological economics, macroeconomics, bank policy, environmental and social issues including affordability, degrowth, labour theory, post-liberal theory, ecofeminist political ecology.
BIO
As an ecological macroeconomist, my research and teaching is focused on monetary theory and policy in the context of social and ecological justice. My main interests lie in the role of macroeconomic and banking policy on ecological and social issues like housing affordability, income and wealth equity, sustainable agriculture, and resilient social systems. Because of this, I spend a lot of time thinking about how a different understanding of money could inform a more just and sustainable approach to policy.
I am very interested in public banking, radical tax reform, and fiscal and monetary policy that is aimed at social and environmental issues rather than price stability alone. The study of money is deeply entwined within the sociological, ecofeminist, anthropological, and historical literature. Because of this I am also very interested in the fields of embeddedness and dualism, and how humans imagine themselves separate from one another and nature—and importantly, how that imagining informs how we create and use money.
Courses
CDAE 1020: World Food, Population & Development
CDAE 1610: Principles of Community Development
CDAE 3530: Macroeconomics for Applied Economics
FS 2010/NFS 2113: US Food Policy and Politics
PA 6110: Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation
PA 6060: Policy Systems
Publications
Bio
As an ecological macroeconomist, my research and teaching is focused on monetary theory and policy in the context of social and ecological justice. My main interests lie in the role of macroeconomic and banking policy on ecological and social issues like housing affordability, income and wealth equity, sustainable agriculture, and resilient social systems. Because of this, I spend a lot of time thinking about how a different understanding of money could inform a more just and sustainable approach to policy.
I am very interested in public banking, radical tax reform, and fiscal and monetary policy that is aimed at social and environmental issues rather than price stability alone. The study of money is deeply entwined within the sociological, ecofeminist, anthropological, and historical literature. Because of this I am also very interested in the fields of embeddedness and dualism, and how humans imagine themselves separate from one another and nature—and importantly, how that imagining informs how we create and use money.
Courses
CDAE 1020: World Food, Population & Development
CDAE 1610: Principles of Community Development
CDAE 3530: Macroeconomics for Applied Economics
FS 2010/NFS 2113: US Food Policy and Politics
PA 6110: Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation
PA 6060: Policy Systems
Publications
Advising
Advising
I am not taking any students for Fall 2026. For questions about applying for L4E’s ecological economics training program, please see https://www.uvm.edu/cals/cdae/leadership-ecozoic-l4e
Post-Doctoral Associate Job Opening
The Department of Community Development and Applied Economics is seeking a Post-doctoral Associate in Degrowth to join the Ecological Economics node of the Leadership for the Ecozoic (L4E) initiative.
This project seeks to explore inflation as a liberal phenomenon by drawing upon a broad heterodox social science literature including ecological economics, ecofeminism, sociology, political economy, and degrowth. We also seek to explore the political dynamics of inflation through a post-liberal lens that aims to re-embed value through rejecting the liberal separation between economy, community, and ecology.
Please review this document for more information and to apply.