For Professor Paola Salardi, diving deep into data and building true connections with her stakeholders are key approaches to solving some of the world’s most persistent inequalities. An applied micro-econometrician and a program director at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, Salardi combines rigorous analysis with a commitment to social impact.
Her latest work, a multi-year evaluation of specialized domestic-violence courts (SDVCs) in Puerto Rico, asks a pragmatic, high-stakes question: do court innovations meant to protect victims actually deliver better outcomes for victims and reduce repeat offense?
In a new working paper for the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research, Salardi and her co-authors Carolina Arteaga, Gustavo Bobonis, and Dario Toman, use a dense dataset of civil domestic-violence case records in Puerto Rico from 2014–2020 to evaluate SDVC’s effectiveness in protecting victims and reducing recidivism. Bobonis is a full professor in U of T's Department of Economics in the Faculy of Arts & Science, and co-director of the Forward Society Lab, which supported this project through its robust network of research partnerships.
The results of the research are striking: access to SDVCs raised the probability that judges issued a protection order and reduced reappearance rates of victims and offenders within one year. The effects are particularly large for cases where the parties have children in common and in locations with otherwise limited access to specialized courts.
Salardi describes the project as quintessential applied research as required close partnerships with Puerto Rico’s Ministry of Justice, and additional considerations to access highly sensitive judicial data. The payoff is robust, policy-relevant evidence that goes beyond anecdotes. Their research is the first to focus on the application of SDVCs outside of high-income countries and thus has the potential to guide further implementation of SDVCs and more equitable justice policies in more contexts.
One particularly compelling finding centers on the role of judges assigned to SDVCs, revealing that judges’ priorities play a decisive role in shaping outcomes. Their research shows that judges who adopt a victim-centered approach — emphasizing restorative justice principles — contribute significantly to the success of SDVCs in improving access to judicial protection. These findings underscore the importance of considering not only judges’ training but also their selection and assignment to courts. Salardi and her coauthors plan to continue exploring the role of judges to address a pressing gap: while judicial innovation appears to enhance access to protection, the effectiveness of such protection remains a crucial area for further investigation in the next stage of this research.
These research commitments blend well with Salardi’s pedagogical priorities: reaffirming the power of methodological rigor and experiential learning for students, even at the beginning of their academic careers. After more than a decade of teaching at the Munk School, Salardi is now an associate professor and the director of the Public Policy and Governance (PPG) undergraduate program. She has made it her mission to demystify quantitative methods for students in programs where qualitative approaches often prevail.
Her teaching experience includes a core microeconomics course in the Master of Global Affairs program; an upper-year undergraduate course, Causes and Consequences of Civil Conflict and Violence, in which students examine the relationship between violent conflict and socio-economic development through case studies and empirical quantitative analysis; and a new Munk One undergraduate course, Design for Social Change and Inclusion.
Building on her experience teaching data-driven inquiry, Salardi is developing pedagogical research that helps students overcome their fear of statistics and engage confidently with data — a natural complement to her broader research agenda.
Within her research and her pedagogical approach, Salardi’s philosophy is consistent: combine rigorous data analyses with on-the-ground partnerships and use evidence to inform practical reforms. As a teacher and an academic leader, Salardi plans to keep digging into new opportunities for her students to learn and grow.