Professor Ernest Aryeetey is the Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, Legon. He studied Economics at the University of Ghana and obtained a PhD at the University of Dortmund, Germany in 1985. He has been on the research faculty of ISSER since 1986. He has also been Temporary Lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1993); Visiting Professor at Yale University Department of Economics (1999); and the Cornell Visiting Professor, Department of Economics at Swarthmore College (2001-2002).

Ernest Aryeetey's research work focuses on the economics of development with interest in institutions and their role in development, regional integration, economic reforms, financial systems in support of development and small enterprise development. He is very well known for his work on informal finance and microfinance in Africa. He has consulted for various international agencies on a number of development and political economy subjects. He has presented seminar papers at Departments of Economics and Planning in such universities as Ohio State University, the University of Manchester, Oxford University, Harvard University, New York University, University of Copenhagen, University of California, Los Angeles, Georgetown University, and Sophia University, Tokyo.

Ernest Aryeetey has published 3 books, 3 edited volumes, 25 journal articles and many working and discussion papers. Among his publications are Financial Integration and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa (Routledge 1998) and Economic Reforms in Ghana: The Miracle and the Mirage (James Currey 2000). He was the second recipient of the Michael Bruno award of the World Bank to become a Visiting Scholar for May-October 1998.

Ernest Aryeetey was the President of the Ghana Institute of Planners (1998-2000) and is a current member of the American Economics Association. He is also a member of the Board of the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) and a Member of the Programme Committee and Resource Person of the African Economic Research Consortium, Nairobi. Prof. Aryeetey is a Managing Editor of the Journal of African Economies and a non-Executive Director of Barclays Bank Ghana Ltd.