Rozvinul Keynesové ekonomické teórie. Zaoberal samakroekonomikou a štátnymi zásahmi do ekonomiky. Jeho akademická práca zahŕňa prínos k štúdiu investícií, monetárnej a fiškálnej politike a finančným trhom. Známa je jeho "Tobinova daň", ktorú formuloval, aby sa predchádzalo špekuláciám na devízovom trhu. Za hlavnú poruchu súčasnej trhovej ekonomiky vidí neúplnú zamestnanosť.
Tobin, James. A note on the money wage problem.Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1941, s. 508–516.DOI: 10.2307/1885642.
Tobin, James. A Dynamic Aggregative Model.Journal of Political Economy, 1955, s. 103–15.DOI: 10.1086/257652.
Tobin, James (1956). "The Interest-Elasticity of Transactions Demand for Cash,"Review of Economics and Statistics, 38(3), pp241–247.[nefunkčný odkaz]
TOBIN, James. Estimation of relationships for limited dependent variables.Econometrica (The Econometric Society), 1958a, s. 24–36.DOI: 10.2307/1907382.
Tobin, James (1961). "Money, Capital, and Other Stores of Value,"American Economic Review, 51(2), pp.26–37. Reprinted in Tobin, 1987,Essays in Economics, v. 1, pp.217–27. MIT Press.
Tobin, James. A General Equilibrium Approach to Monetary Theory.Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, 1969, s. 15–29.
Tobin, James (1970). "Money and Income: Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc?"Quarterly Journal of Economics, 84(2), pp.301–317.Archivované 2013-05-16 naWayback Machine
Tobin, James and William C. Brainard (1977a). "Asset Markets and the Cost of Capital". In Richard Nelson and Bela Balassa, eds.,Economic Progress: Private Values and Public Policy (Essays in Honor of William Fellner), Amsterdam: North-Holland, 235-62.
Tobin, James. How Dead is Keynes?.Economic Inquiry, 1977b, s. 459–468.
Tobin, James,Essays in Economics, MIT Press: v. 1 (1987),Macroeconomics. Scroll to chapter-preview.Dostupné online v. 3 (1987).Theory and Policy (in 1989 paperback asPolicies for Prosperity: Essays in a Keynesian Mode).Dostupné online v. 4 (1996).National and International.Dostupné online
Tobin, James, with Stephen S. Golub (1998).Money, Credit, and Capital. Irwin/McGraw-Hill.TOC.
