Ferrari's research interests lie in the fields of labor economics, economics of aging, policy evaluation, and household finance. In her research she uses survey data, mostly from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), as well as large administrative datasets. Ferrari holds a PhD in economics from the University of Bologna. Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy— Munich Center for the Economics of Aging.