Having graduated from Azerbaijan Oil and Chemistry Institute in 1977 he started his professional career  in the “Optimisation of Macroeconomic Systems” laboratory of the Cybernetics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan SSR.  He worked as an engineer and associate at the Institute. In between 1980 and 1984 he studied at the post-graduate program of Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan SSR and in 1985 he defended his candidacy dissertation on the topic “Modelling of the Activity of Agricultural Enterprise in the Conditions of New Farming”. From 1988 to 1994 he served as a scientific secretary of Scientific Research Economics Institute of the State Planning Committee of Azerbaijan SSR and from 1989, concurrently, he worked as a head of “Foreign Economic Relations” scientific department of the same institute. In 1994 he was appointed as a deputy director of the Economic Reforms Centre (current ESRI) of the Ministry of Economy formed on the basis of Scientific Research Economics Institute, in between 1995 and 1996 he served as an acting director of Economic Reforms Centre and since 1996 he was appointed as a director of the aforementioned Centre.  From 2002 to 2008 Rasim Hasanov worked as a department head and chief of staff at the Chamber of Accounts of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Since 2008 Rasim Hasanov worked at Azerbaijan State Economic University. He was a professor of “International Economic Relations” department, in between 2009 and 2016 he served as a director of the newly established Economic Studies Scientific Research Institute under Azerbaijan State Economic University. 

In 2003 he defended his dissertation to acquire a degree of a doctor of economic sciences on the topic “Reformation of Azerbaijani Economy and Integration to the Global Economic System”. He is the author of more than 200 scientific works, including authorship and co-authorship of 8 monographs and one textbook. 

Currently, he works as a professor at the department of “Economics and Management” at UNEC.