From 1978 to 1983 Quiggin was a Research Economist and in 1986 was the Chief Research Economist with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics what was of the predecessor of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics of the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. From 1984 to 1985 he was a Research Fellow of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at the Australian National University. From 1987 to 1988 he was a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Economics of the University of Sydney. In 1989 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Economics, a consultancy firm in Canberra.