Fabio Schiantarelli was born in Morbegno, Valtellina, Italy in 1950 and completed his pre-university education in Sondrio (Liceo Piazzi). He obtained his first degree from Bocconi University in Milano in 1974 and his Ph. D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science in London in 1981.

He is currently Professor of Economics in the Economics Department at Boston College, in Boston, Massachusetts. He has taught at Boston University, Essex University, Southampton University, Bocconi University, and at the European University Institute. He has been a consultant for the World Bank and for the Inter American Development Bank on several projects.

Fabio Schiantarelli has written on topics such as adjustment costs, investment and labor demand, the effect of financial constraints, financial shocks, tax policy and product market regulation on investment, the impact of financial reform on allocative efficiency and saving, capital accumulation and growth, innovation and productivity, legal institutions and firms' loan repayment decisions, the relationship between labor market outcomes, policies and culture, the evolution of culture among immigrants, ancestry composition, diversity and local economic performance, the economic effects of populism, Covid-19, financing constraints and firms' expectations and plans.

He has published in international journals such as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Finance, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Economic Journal, The Journal of the European Economic Association, the International Economic Review, the Journal of Econometrics, the Journal of Applied Econometrics, the Journal of Monetary Economics, the Journal of Economic Growth, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Finance, the Journal of Financial Intermediation, the Journal of Public Economics, the European Economic Review, the Journal of Development Economics, Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, and Economica.

Fabio Schiantarelli lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with his wife Lisa M. Lynch, Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis University's Heller School, and former Provost (and interim President) of Brandeis University. Their daughter Julia is in medical school in the HST program at Harvard University.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in January 2002.