Joan Esteban has been member of the Institute for Economic Analysis (IAE-CSIC) since its beginning in 1985. He was Director of IAE from 1989 to 1991 and from 2001 to 2006. He is Barcelona GSE Research Professor (Emeritus). Professor Esteban coordinated the EU funded research project "Polarization and Conflict"from 2004-2008 and now holds an Axa Research Fund grant. He serves as Secretary General of the International Economic Association (2011-2017) and is a Rey Jaime I laureate in Economics (2007). In 2014 he was awarded the Urrutia Elejalde Foundation Diversity Prize.

His research has been published in the American Economic Review, American Political Science Review, Econometrica, Economics of Governance, Economics Letters, European Economic Review, International Economic Review, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Economic Inequality, Journal of Peace Research, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Social Choice and Welfare, and Theory and Decision.