As part of Harris Public Policy, the University of Chicago Urban Labs works to address challenges across five key dimensions of urban life: crime, education, energy & environment, health, and economic opportunity.

Each of the five urban labs partner with civic and community leaders to identify, test, and help scale the programs and policies with the greatest potential to improve human lives, and provide meaningful opportunities for Harris students to engage with important issues affecting the City of Chicago and beyond.

Crime Lab

Using randomized controlled trials, insights from behavioral economics, and predictive analytics, the Crime Lab partners with policymakers and practitioners to generate evidence about the strategies that reduce violence and do the most social good per dollar spent.

Becoming a Man group session
Becoming A Man (BAM) group session. The Crime Lab evaluated the impact of BAM using a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Photo credit: Youth Guidance

Education Lab

The Education Lab partners with civic and community leaders to identify, rigorously evaluate, and learn how to scale programs and policies that improve education in America’s most distressed urban neighborhoods.

Energy & Environmental Lab

The Energy & Environment Lab partners with civic and community leaders to identify, rigorously evaluate, and help scale programs and policies that reduce pollution, conserve limited natural resources, and improve environmental outcomes, while ensuring access to reliable and affordable energy.

Faucet
The Energy & Environment Lab has partnered with the Illinois Department of Public Health to address the issue of lead exposure to children in Illinois.

Health Lab

The Health Lab partners with civic and community leaders to identify, rigorously evaluate, and help scale programs and policies that improve health outcomes, particularly for low-income and disadvantaged urban residents.

Teacher speaking with student in a classroom setting
Photo credit: Saga Education

Inclusive Economy Lab

The Inclusive Economy Lab partners with policymakers, community-based organizations and others to generate rigorous evidence that leads to greater economic opportunity for communities harmed by disinvestment and segregation.

Jens Ludwig

Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor

Jens Ludwig

On urban poverty, Ludwig has participated in the evaluation of a HUD-funded residential-mobility experiment that provides low-income public housing families the opportunity to relocate to private-market housing. In the area of crime, Ludwig has written extensively about gun-violence prevention.