Arianto A. Patunru earned a Master of Science degree from the Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2000) with specialization in Economics and International Policy Economics. He received his PhD from the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2004).
During his time as Director of Institute for Economic and Social Research, Arianto A. Patunru is also active as a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia. In 2012, he joined the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University.