Jens Ludwig

Jens Ludwig is the McCormick Foundation Professor of Social Service Administration, Law and Public Policy, director of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab, codirector of the Education Lab, and codirector of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s working group on the economics of crime.

Through the Crime Lab Ludwig is involved in partnering with policymakers in Chicago, New York City, and across the country to use tools from social science, behavioral science, and computer science to identify effective (and cost-effective) ways to help prevent crime and violence. Crime Lab projects have helped redirect millions of dollars of public-sector resources to evidence-based strategies and have been featured various national news outlets. In 2014 the Crime Lab received a $1 million MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. Ludwig has also conducted research on urban poverty with a focus on housing and education.

He is coauthor of Gun Violence: The Real Costs (with Philip J. Cook; Oxford University Press, 2000), coeditor both of Evaluating Gun Policy (with Philip J. Cook; Brookings Institution Press, 2003), and Controlling Crime: Strategies and Tradeoffs (with Philip J. Cook and Justin McCray; The University of Chicago Press, 2012). He is currently on the editorial board of the American Economic Review and serves on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Neurobiological and Socio-behavioral Science of Adolescent Development and Its Applications.