Understanding Gun Violence in America | Steven Davis, Jens Ludwig | Hoover Institution

Steve Davis speaks to Jens Ludwig about his deeply-researched new book on gun deaths in America. They discuss why America has so many gun deaths, how traditional narratives fail to explain most gun violence, and why past policies failed to reduce the deadly toll. Ludwig also advances a fuller explanation for gun violence, grounded in evidence and behavioral insights.

Recorded on April 23, 2025.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Jens Ludwig is the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. He is also the Pritzker Director of the University’s Crime Lab and codirector of the NBER’s working group on the economics of crime. His latest book, just out from the University of Chicago Press, is titled Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence.

Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.

RELATED SOURCES:

• Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence by Jens Ludwig, 2025
• Jens Ludwig, personal website
• Crime Lab, University of Chicago
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
• Economics of Crime, NBER working group
• “Does Nothing Stop a Bullet Like a Job? The Effects of Income on Crime,” Annual Review of Criminology, 2025