Martin Eichenbaum majored in economics at McGill University and earned his doctorate at the University of Minnesota in 1981. He then taught at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1988 he was appointed a professor at Northwestern University, where he is currently the Charles Moskos Professor of Economics and is the co-director of the Center for International Economics and Development. Eichenbaum has also worked as a consultant for the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago, Atlanta, and San Francisco, as well as for the International Monetary Fund. His main areas of research are macroeconomics, international macroeconomics, monetary theory, and monetary policy.

The chair of the Deutsche Bundesbank guest professorship at the School of Business and Economics, Freie Universität Berlin, was established by a Foundation of the Deutsche Bundesbank in 1987. In accordance with the statues of the Foundation, the Bundesbank guest professorship is awarded to an internationally recognized university professor in the fields of monetary theory and monetary policy, currency theory, and currency policy for one or more semesters.