• Engineers of Jihad. The curious connection between education and violent extremism, (2016), Princeton: Princeton University Press (with Steffen Hertog)
  – Ingegneri della Jihad. I sorprendenti legami fra istruzione ed estremismo, (2017), Milan EGEA, Italian edition
• Codes of the underworld. How criminals communicate, (2009), Princeton: Princeton University Press
  – 狄亚哥·甘贝塔，解码黑社会，北京：华夏出版社 (Decoding Triad), (2011), Beijing: Huaxia Publishing House, Chinese edition
  – Коды криминального мира: Как общаются между собой преступники. Чебоксары: Издательство Перфектум, (2011), Cheboksary: Izdatelstvo Perfectum, Russian edition
  – La Pègre Déchiffrée – Signes et stratégies de la communication criminelle, (2014), Geneva: Markus Haller, French edition
• Making Sense of Suicide Missions, (2005), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  – El Sentido De Las Misiones Suicidas, (2009), Fondo de Cultura Econòmica, Spanish edition
• Streetwise. How taxi drivers establish customers’ trustworthiness, (2005), New York: Russell Sage Foundation (with Heather Hamill)
• The Sicilian mafia. The business of private protection, (1993), Harvard University Press
  – La mafia siciliana. Un’industria della protezione privata, (1992 – 1994),  Torino: Einaudi, Italian editions
  – Die firma der paten. Die sizilianische mafia und ihre geschäftspraktiken, (1994), Munich: DTV, German edition
  – La mafia siciliana: El negocio de la protección privada, (2007), Fondo de Cultura Econòmica, Spanish edition
  – Mafia sycylijska: Prywatna ochrona jako biznes, (2009), Oficyna Naukowa, Polish Edition
• Trust: Making and breaking cooperative relations, (1988), Oxford: B. Blackwell   (pdf available)
  – Le strategie della fiducia : indagini sulla razionalità della cooperazione, (1989), Torino: Einaudi, Italian edition
• Were they pushed or did they jump? Individual decision mechanisms in education, (1987), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (pdf available)
  – Per amore o per forza? Le decisioni scolastiche individuali, (1990), Bologna: Il Mulino, Italian edition
  – American Paperback edition, (1996), Denver: Westview Press

Publications only in Italian

• 1996. Le scelte scolastiche individuali. Torino: Rosenberg & Sellier (IRES-Piemonte Series), (with Luciano Abburrà and Renato Miceli)
• 1994. La retorica della riforma. Fine del sistema proporzionale in Italia. Torino: Einaudi (with Steven Warner)
• 1980. L’offerta di lavoro giovanile in Piemonte. Milano: Franco Angeli (with Ugo Colombino and Francesca Rondi)
• 1978. Il compromesso difficile. Forme di rappresentanza e rapporti di classe dal Centro-Sinistra al Compromesso storico. Torino: Rosenberg & Sellier (with Luca Ricolfi)