Pollin has published several books on topics in public economics, such as inequality, financial regulation and public welfare.[5][6][7] In 2013, he was selected by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the “100 Leading Global Thinkers.”[3]
Pollin moved to the University of Massachusetts Amherst's economic department from University of California, Riverside in 1998. According to Marxian economistRichard D. Wolff, Pollin's department is described as being "left Keynesians, but the Keynesianism is the theoretical frame. Marxism, for sure, is not". Pollin states that he would be happy to hire Marxists but that economics departments do not produce them any longer.[8]
Pollin and his colleagues defended Nicolas Maduro following the 2013 Venezuelan presidential election stating that audits performed by the Venezuelan government were sufficient and that Maduro won the presidency.[12][13] In June 2015, the leftist Spanish party Podemos partnered with Pollin on a renewable energy plan that they said would create jobs and make Spain more independent with energy.
In April 2022, Pollin recommended that the US government purchase a controlling interest in the three dominant U.S. oil and gas corporations, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips in order to enable the phaseout of fossil fuels and the transition to clean energy.[14]
^Chomsky, Noam; Pollin, Robert; Polychroniou, C. J. (2020). Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal: The Political Economy of Saving the Planet. Verso Books. ISBN978-1-78873-985-6.