He was the author of more than 400 scholarly papers and 10 books, including the monumental, 3-volume series, A History of the Federal Reserve.

Meltzer served as a consultant for several congressional committees, the President's Council of Economic Advisers, the U.S. Treasury Department, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, foreign governments and various central banks. He was also a member of the President's Economic Policy Advisory Board from 1988-90.

From 1986 to 2002, he was an honorary adviser to the Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies of the Bank of Japan. In 1999-2000, he served as chairman of the International Financial Institution Advisory Commission, known as the Meltzer Commission, which proposed major reforms of the International Monetary Fund and the development banks.He was the author of more than 10 books and 400 papers during his distinguished career.

In 1973, along with Karl Brunner of the University of Rochester, Meltzer co-founded the Shadow Open Market Committee, and from 1973-1999 served as the chair of the organization. Its objective is to evaluate the policy choices and actions of the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee and to improve policy discussions among policymakers, journalists and the general public with the hope that wiser policy decisions will result.

In 1983, Meltzer received a medal for distinguished professional achievement from UCLA. He was named the distinguished fellow for 2011 by the American Council for Capital Formation and is a distinguished fellow of the American Economic Association. In 2003, he received the Irving Kristol Award from the American Enterprise Institute and the Adam Smith Award from the National Association for Business Economics. In 2009, he received the Distinguished Teacher Award from the International Mensa Foundation. In 2011, Meltzer received the Bradley Award, the Harry Truman Medal for Public Policy and the Truman Medal for Economic Policy.