Her interests are in labour, public finance, health and applied econometrics.

She has primarily focused her structural work on topics related to consumption and saving dynamics, as well as studying risk-taking and cognition via nonparametric partial identification methods.

More recently, she combines theory, empirical analysis and randomised controlled trials to help design interventions that aim to improve educational outcomes using technology. 

Isabella is also the Deputy Head of the School of Economics, co-chair of the STEP UP initiative in Education, a CEPAR Associate Investigator, and editor of the Journal of Pension Economics & Finance (JPEF).