His academic career began when he started teaching in Presidency College, Kolkata. In the 1960s, he taught in the Faculty of Economics in Cambridge (where he was Fellow of Jesus College), but resigned his post in 1969, to resume his academic career in Presidency College, Kolkata.^[2]

In 1974 he joined the newly founded Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.^[3]

Bagchi has specialised in the history of Indian banking and finance, and acted as Official Historian of the State Bank of India (SBI) from 1976 to 1998; he played a leading role in ensuring that the unique archives of SBI are preserved for posterity.^[2]

After retiring as Reserve Bank of India professor from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta in 2001, he became the founder-director of the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata.^[2]

The professional awards and honours Bagchi has received include:

• Padma Shri of the government of India 2005.^[4]

Bagchi has authored over 250 academic articles and has authored and edited numerous books and monographs.

The books he has authored include:

• 2010 Colonialism and Indian Economy, Oxford University Press
• 2005 Perilous Passage: Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• 2004 The Developmental State in History and in the Twentieth Century, New Delhi: Regency
• 2002 Capital and Labour Redefined: India and the Third World, Anthem Press
• 1997 The Evolution of the State Bank of India: The Era of the Presidency Banks 1876–1920, Sage Publications
• 1989 The Presidency Banks and the Indian Economy 1876–1914, Bombay:. Oxford University Press
• 1987 Public Intervention and Industrial Restructuring in China, India and Republic of Korea, New Delhi: ILO-ARTEP
• 1987, reissued 2006 The Evolution of the State Bank of India. The Roots, 1806–1876, Oxford University Press; reissued by Penguin Portfolio
• 1982 The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, Cambridge University Press
• 1972 Private Investment in India 1900–1939, Cambridge University Press

Edited and co-edited volumes edit

• 2007 Capture and Exclude: Developing Economies and the Poor in Global Finance (with Gary A. Dymski) New Delhi: Tulika
• 2005 Webs of History: Information, Communication and Technology from Early to Post-Colonial India (with D. Sinha and B. Bagchi), New Delhi: Manohar
• 2005 Maladies, Preventives, and Curatives: Debates in Public Health in India (with K. Soman), New Delhi: Tulika
• 2003 Economy and the Quality of Life: Essays in Memory of Ashok Rudra (with M. Chattopadhyay and R. Khasnabis), Kolkata: Dasgupta & Co.
• 2002 Money and Credit in Indian History since Early Medieval Times, New Delhi: Tulika
• 1999 Multiculturalism, Liberalism and Democracy (with R. Bhargava and R. Sudarshan), Oxford University Press
• 1999 Economy and Organization: Indian Institutions under the Neoliberal Regime, Sage Publications
• 1995 Democracy and Development: Proceedings of the IEA Conference Held in Barcelona, Spain, Palgrave Macmillan
• 1995 New Technology and the Workers’ Response: Microelectronics, Labour and Society, Sage Publications
• 1988 Economy, Society and Polity: Essays in the Political Economy of Indian Planning in Honour of Professor Bhabatosh Datta, Oxford University Press

Chapters in books edit

• Bagchi, Amiya Kumar (2009), "The capability approach and the political economy of human development", in Kanbur, Ravi; Basu, Kaushik (eds.), Arguments for a better world: essays in honor of Amartya Sen | Volume II: Society, institutions and development, Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 31–47, ISBN 9780199239979.

• Kurien, CT, Review of PERILOUS PASSAGE — Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital, The Hindu (3 October 2006)
• Radical Notes, Capital and capitalists nannied by the states: An Interview with Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Radical Notes (18 October 2008)
• Murali, D, [1], 'Property Right Subjugation by British Land Tax,' review of an essay in Bagchi's 2010 book Colonialism and Indian Economy, The Hindu Businessline (17 July 2010).