Parisi earned his law degree at the University of Rome in 1985. He later studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where he obtained an LL.M. (1988) and J.S.D. (1990). He taught briefly at Louisiana State University Law Center before moving to George Mason University School of Law. While an associate professor at George Mason, Parisi obtained an M.A. in economics at Berkeley, later earning a Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University.
