Marco Vivarelli graduated from Bocconi University-Milano and earned a Ph.D. from SPRU-Sussex University and one from Pavia University.
He is Cavaliere al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (Presidential decree, June, 2nd, 2009).
He is Member of the Academia Europaea, since July 2019.
He is Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, since September 2022.
He is full professor of Economics at the Catholic University of Milano, where he is also Director of the Department of Economic Policy.
He is Professorial Fellow at UNU-MERIT, Maastricht.
He is member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Global Digital Foundation (Brussels, Canberra and Washington D.C.).
He is member of the Scientific Executive Board of the Eurasia Business and Economics Society (EBES, Istanbul).
He is member of the International Board of the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO, Vienna).
He has been scientific consultant for the International Labour Office (ILO), World Bank (WB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the European Commission (EC).

Since October 2010 to September 2013 he has been Honorary Professor at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex.
Since April 2005 to December 2012 he has been External Associate at the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation(CSGR), University of Warwick.
Since February 2004 to December 2009 he has been external Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Economics - Jena.
Since July 2007 to December 2007 and since July 2008 to February 2009 he has served as visiting Senior Scientist at the Joint Research Centre - Institute for Prospective Technological Studies of the European Commission (JRC-IPTS, Seville).
Since June 2002 to May 2005 he has served as Senior Research Economist at the International Labour Office - Geneva.

He is Editor-in-Chief of the Eurasian Business Review, Editor of Small Business Economics, Editor of Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali, Associate Editor of Industrial and Corporate Change, Associate Editor of Economics E-Journal, Associate Editor of Economia e Politica Industriale - Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Member of the Editorial Board of Sustainability (Section: "Economic, Business and Management Aspects of Sustainability"), Member of the Editorial Review Board of International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, and he has served as referee for more than 90 international journals.

He is author and editor of various books and his papers have been published in numerous refereed international journals, including Applied Economics, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics, Economics Letters, Empirical Economics, Industrial and Corporate Change, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of Economics, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Journal of Population Economics, Journal of Productivity Analysis, Labour Economics, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Regional Studies, Research Policy, Small Business Economics, Southern Economic Journal, World Bank Research Observer, World Development.

His current research interests include the relationship between innovation, employment and skills; the labour market and income distribution impacts of globalization; the entry and post-entry performance of newborn firms.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in November 2002.