Shortly after his birth, his parents moved to a Social Democratic housing development in Penzing, in the western part of Vienna.
After graduation, he earned both a master's degree and a PhD in economics from Harvard University, where he studied under John Kenneth Galbraith.
[1][3] Papanek briefly served in the Agency for International Development within the US State Department before being fired for his socialist leanings.
At Harvard, Papanek studied income distribution and poverty in developing countries; he specialized in the economies of Indonesia and Pakistan.
He led the Boston Institute for Developing Economies for thirty years, advising governments on macroeconomic and microeconomic policies.