Christopher Adam's research is on the macroeconomics of low-income countries, in particular those of Africa, with a focus on monetary economics and public finance; and growth and structural change in low-income countries, including in response to climate change and natural disasters. His work uses methods of quantitative macroeconomics including stochastic and deterministic general equilibrium techniques.

Christopher Adam is a Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a member of the FCDO-IMF research program on the macroeconomics of low-income countries; an advisor Lead Academic for the International Growth Centre (IGC); and an advisor to the Monetary and Economics Department of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS).

From 2003-05 he served as external Macroeconomic Adviser to the Policy Division at the Department for International Development (DFID) and represented DFID as Vice Chair of the African Economic Research Consortium from 2006 to 2016. In 2011-12 he served as Special Advisor to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee Inquiry into Aid Effectiveness.

He is currently Managing Editor of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy and an associate editor of the Journal of Development Economics. In September 2021 he was appointed Delegate for Economics to Oxford University Press.