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Peter Boettke is a university professor of economics at George Mason University, the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism, vice president for research, and research director for the Global Prosperity Initiative at the Mercatus Center, and the deputy director of the James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy.

Before joining the faculty at George Mason University in 1998, Boettke taught at New York University. In addition, Boettke was a national fellow at the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University during the 1992-1993 academic year. He has been a visiting professor or scholar at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, the Max Planck Institute for Research into Economic Systems in Jena, Germany, the Stockholm School of Economics, Central European University in Prague, Charles University in Prague, and was the F. A. Hayek Fellow in 2004 and 2006 at the London School of Economics.

Boettke has authored numerous books and articles; his most recent book, Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development: The Bloomington School (Routledge, 2009), co-authored with Paul Dragos Aligica, analyzes the ascendancy of the New Institutional Theory movement.  Boettke is also the author of several books on the history, collapse and transition from socialism in the former Soviet Union --- The Political Economy of Soviet Socialism: The Formative Years, 1918-1928 (Kluwer, 1990); Why Perestroika Failed: The Economics and Politics of Socialism Transformation (Routledge, 1993); and Calculation and Coordination: Essays on Socialism and Transitional Political Economy (Routledge, 2001). He is also now the co-author, along with David Prychitko, of the classic principles of economics texts of Paul Heyne's The Economic Way of Thinking (12th Edition, Prentice Hall, 2009). Professor Boettke has also edited the following volumes: Socialism and the Market: The Socialist Calculation Debate Revisited, 9 volumes (Routledge, 2000); The Legacy of F. A. Hayek: Politics, Philosophy, Economics, 3 volumes (Elgar, 1999), The Market Process, 2 volumes (Elgar, 1998), Market Process: Essays in Contemporary Austrian Economics (Elgar, 1994), The Collapse of Development Planning (New York University Press, 1994), The Elgar Companion to Austrian Economics (Elgar, 1994), and The Handbook on Austrian Economics (Elgar, 2010).

In 1998, Boettke assumed the editorship of the Review of Austrian Economics (Kluwer Academic Publishers). The Review of Austrian Economics was founded by late Murray Rothbard in mid-1980s to promote research and the further development of the Austrian school of economics. Prior to assuming that editorship, Boettke was the editor of Advances in Austrian Economics. Since the mid-1990s, he has also been the director of the Advanced Summer Seminar in Austrian Economics, a post he took over from Israel Kirzner. Boettke is a former president of the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics.

In addition to his scholarly activities, Boettke is a dedicated teacher and has won teaching awards including the Golden Dozen Award for Excellence in Teaching from the College of Arts and Sciences at New York University  and the GMU Alumni Association's 2009 Faculty Member of the Year award. He has taught in the Honors College Programs at Oakland University, New York University, and George Mason University. Beyond economics, Boettke is also an affiliated faculty member in the Russian Studies Program, has taught at the law school, and has served on dissertation committees in the school of public policy.

Boettke directs the weekly Workshop in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at George Mason University. The Workshop was established to encourage and explore the latest research at the intersection of these three disciplines by scholars from across the social sciences and humanities. Over the years, speakers have included Jon Elster, Duncan Folely, Andrei Shleifer, Deirdre McCloskey, Vernon Smith, James M. Buchanan, Richard Swedberg, David Schmidtz, and Sylvia Nasar among others.

In 2005, Boettke received the Charles Koch Distinguished Alumnus award from the Institute for Humane Studies and the Jack Kennedy Award for Alumni Achievement from Grove City College.

Outside of the classroom, Boettke has pursued a parallel career in athletics. A former high school and college basketball and tennis player, Boettke first worked as a tennis teaching professional before pursuing his graduate degree in economics. After graduate school, he began coaching youth basketball and eventually coached at the high school and elite AAU level. Several of his former players are now competing in college. In 2009, he was inducted as a coach into the local basketball Hall of Fame in Northern Virginia.