Her academic research is in the area of health care management, with a focus on the drivers of innovation among medical device and pharmaceutical firms as well as the determinants of how medical technologies are adopted and used in practice. Her research has been cited by Bloomberg, The New York Times, and National Public Radio. Before beginning her academic career, Ariel worked as an economist on Wall Street and at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the German Institute for Economic Research, the German Development Bank, and LeapFrog Investments, an impact investment fund. She holds an A.B. from Dartmouth College, where she was awarded the Haney Prize for the best honors thesis in Economics and was co-captain of the two-time U.S. national collegiate champion figure skating team, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard University.