The basicity of alkali-metal-exchanged (Na, K, Cs) zeolites X and Y was probed by W-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy of adsorbed iodine. The observed blue shift in the visible absorption spectrum of adsorbed iodine, compared to gaseous iodine, correlated well with the negative charge on the framework oxygen atoms calculated from the Sanderson electronegativity equalization principle. The blue shifts associated with iodine adsorbed on classical catalytic supports like silica, alumina, and magnesia suggest that the iodine adsorption technique for probing basicity is applicable to a wide variety of solids. Iodine was also adsorbed on X and Y zeolites containing occluded cesium oxide formed by decomposition of impregnated cesium acetate. However, the iodine appeared to irreversibly react on these strongly basic samples, possibly forming an adsorbed triiodide ion. As a complement to the adsorption studies, the activity of alkali-metal-containing zeolites for the base-catalyzed formation of ethylene carbonate from ethylene oxide and carbon dioxide was investigated. Among the ion-exchanged zeolites, the cesium form of zeolite X exhibited the highest activity for ethylene carbonate formation. The catalytic activity of a zeolite containing occluded cesium was even higher than that of a cesium-exchanged zeolite. The presence of water adsorbed in zeolite pores promoted the rate of ethylene carbonate formation for both cesium-exchanged and cesium-impregnated zeolite X.