Ghilarducci received her PhD in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. From 2007 to 2009, she was the Wurf fellow at the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Economic Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C., that works to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers in economic policy.
In addition to her most recent book, Rescuing Retirement, co-authored by Hamilton “Tony” James, Executive Vice Chairman of The Blackstone Group. In an unusual partnership, they outline their bold policy vision to create Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) for all American workers. Ghilarducci has authored several books on retirement security, including How to Retire with Enough Money; When I’m Sixty Four: The Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them; Labor's Capital: The Economics and Politics of Employer Pensions, winner of an Association of American Publishers award in 1992; and Portable Pension Plans for Casual Labor Markets.
She also writes a regular column for Forbes #RetireWell blog. Her next book, Let Us Now Praise Retirement: Second Thoughts about Older Working, will describe the reality of the lives of Americans working later in life.