After completing high school at the academically reputed Melbourne High School. Corden graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1950 and obtained his Ph.D. in economics at the London School of Economics (1956). He was subsequently Nuffield Reader in International Economics and Fellow of Nuffield College at Oxford University, and from 1977 to 1988 he was Professor of Economics at the Australian National University. Furthermore, he was Senior Advisor in the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund from 1986 until 1988.
He then became professor and, later on, Chung Ju Yung Distinguished Professor of International Economics at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University until he retired in late 2002. He is currently Emeritus Professor of International Economics at SAIS and a Professorial Fellow in the Department of Economics of the University of Melbourne.