Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, he earned a degree in engineering at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario in 1964 and studied economics at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. At Queen"s he completed his doctorate in economics.
He held the David Smith Chair at Queen"s University in Kingston, Ontario. Earlier he was Sir Edward Peacock Professor of Economic Theory at Queen"s University. He has taught at Queen"s University since 1973.
He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1986.
He was previously editor of the Journal of Public Economics. He also serves on the editorial board of the Canadian Tax Journal, the National Tax Journal, International Tax and Public Finance and Regional Science and Urban Economics.
His research interests are public sector economics and welfare economics, with special emphasis on tax theory and policy, redistribution, fiscal federalism and cost–benefit analysis. His work includes books entitled Public Sector Economics, Welfare Economics, Canadian Tax Policy, Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in Canada and Economics and the Canadian Economy as well as articles in academic journals.
He has been involved in research studies for the John Deutsch Institute, the Economic Council of Canada, the World Bank, the Organization of European Cooperation and Development, the Financial and Fiscal Commission in South Africa, the Canadian Tax Foundation and for Royal Commissions on the Economic Union, on Passenger Transportation and on Aboriginal Peoples, the Mowatt Policy Center (University of Toronto) and various Canadian government departments.
In January 29, 2016 Boadway received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Uppsala University for his contribution of "number of important insights to the study of public economics".
