Professor William Baah-Boateng is the first Ghanaian academic to be appointed full Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Ghana and the first ever to be appointed to that grade on promotion”. He started his academic career  in 2000 when he was appointed Lecturer in Economics at the University of Ghana after obtaining M. Phil degree in Economics from the University. He is the Director and a Senior Fellow of the International Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS).

He was appointed Head of the Department of Economics, University of Ghana in August 2018. He also served as long-term advisor on consultancy to the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations under DANIDA funded Programme, Labour Component of the Business Sector Programme Support between June 2007 and December 2012. He also worked at the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET) as Senior Research Fellow between 2015 and 2017.  He was appointed Ela Bhat Visiting Professor at the International Centre for Development and  Decent Work (ICDD) at the University of Kassel in Germany in 2015/2016. He was also awarded a senior research fellowship at the Harvard Centre for African Studies in 2017. He is editor of the Ghanaian Journal of Economics.  Professor Baah-Boateng was nominated as a focal member of the Ghana's Presidential Committee on emoluments that determined salaries and service conditions for current and past Presidents and other prominent office holders of the 6th Government of Ghana’s 4^th Republic (2013-2017) in 2016. 

Professor William Baah-Boateng holds PhD in Economics and he is an alumnus of the University of Ghana Legon and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts USA. He has published  widely in the area of the economy, economics of  labour and work, skills and human capital development, poverty and livelihood, gender and economics and many other development economic issues.  He has over 75 publications in the form of journal articles, books and book chapters, working and issue papers, technical reports policy briefs and blogs. He has supervised over 70 students at the PhD, Masters and undergraduate students. He has also presented papers at international conferences and local platforms. He has consulted and continues to consult for international organizations including the ILO, UNDP, UNECA, AfDB, UNFPA, JICA, DANIDA and the World Bank. He also consults for domestic institutions including the Ministries of Employment, Finance and Trade, Trades Union Congress, Ghana Employers’ Association (GEA) etc.