Jens Ludwig (economist)

Jens Otto Ludwig (born 1968 in Frankfurt, Germany) is a University of Chicago economist whose research focuses on social policy, particularly urban issues such as poverty, crime, and education. He is McCormick Foundation Professor of Social Service Administration, Law, and Public Policy in the School of Social Service Administration and Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago, where he also serves as Co-Director of the university's Urban Education and Crime Labs.

Ludwig is also Project Director for the long-term evaluation of the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) randomized housing mobility experiment at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), where he is also Co-Director of the Working Group on Economics of Crime and a Research Associate in the Program on Children and the Health Economics Program.

Among a variety of other current and previous posts, in 2012 Ludwig was also elected as Vice President of Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management and as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2006 he received the David N. Kershaw Prize for contributions to public policy.