Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Carlos Garriga was assistant professor of economics at the Department of Economics at Florida State University, and assistant professor of economics at the Universidad de Barcelona (Spain). He has been a visiting professor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the Department of Economics at the University of Minnesota. He has also taught economic courses at the business school at the Universidad Abat Oliba, at the economics department at the Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED), and the business school at the Universidad de Barcelona. He serves as Associate editor at the Journal of Economics Dynamics and Control.

Garriga received a B.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the Universitat de Barcelona in 1995 and 1999 respectively.