Can Erbil specializes in international trade and development economics with a focus on trade policy, tax reforms, and macroeconomic policy recommendations in an open economy framework. In his research he employs advanced economic modeling tools such as CGE models and integrated modeling platforms, as well as intuitive and simple innovations such as the "debt burden index" (see recent paper with Ferhan Salman titled "Revealing Turkey's Public Debt Burden - A Transparent Payments Approach," Journal of Policy Modeling, 2006).

Since 2002, Can Erbil has been working as a full-time faculty at IBS and the Department of Economics at Brandeis University. Erbil teaches courses in international trade and globalization (graduate level), development economics (graduate and undergraduate), econometrics (graduate and undergraduate - at Brandeis and Harvard University), microeconomics, macroeconomics, quantitative analysis (graduate level), economic modeling with general equilibrium: theory and practice (Ph.D. level), political economy (graduate level) and international monetary economics and finance (at Harvard University). Since 2009, Prof. Erbil also holds the title of Assistant Director of Center for German and European Studies (CGES) at Brandeis University.

Can Erbil is currently the Director of Economic Modeling School and Research Fellow at EcoMod, Global Economic Modeling Network, where he is involved in research, teaching and consulting on economic modeling. He organizes and teaches workshops in countries like Singapore, Ecuador, Venezuela, Turkey, Bahrain and UAE. The workshops are attended by a wide range of individuals in the field, including employees of Central Banks, Finance Ministries, International Institutions, think tanks, NGOs, as well as private businesses.

Erbil has worked as a consultant at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He worked on a project for the New Hampshire Tax Commission estimating the economic impacts of changes in income, sales and property taxes.

On two different occasions, Erbil has worked at the International Trade Division of the World Bank, as a consultant and data manager. He has conducted intensive empirical research using international data sources, and delivered policy recommendations to client countries on issues such as trade policy, integration, market openness and export competitiveness.