Specialist in macroeconomics and social security and pensions and expert in the sustainability of social welfare systems and the regulation and supervision of pension systems. She is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Turin (Faculty of Economics) and Scientific Coordinator of the Centre for Research on Pensions and Welfare Policies, the first research centre in Italy (and one of the first in Europe) specifically focused on the economic analysis of pensions, aging and public policies typified by the concept of the welfare state. She was Minister of Labor, Social Policies and Gender Equality in Mario Monti's government, where she conceived and designed a series of labour market and pension reforms that were crucial to Italy’s exit from the excessive deficit procedure applied by the European Union. She sought to launch a series of measures that would guarantee a truly intergenerational redistribution of income in the long term.