The What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth (What Works Growth) is an independent research centre that helps make local growth policy more cost-effective through the better use of evaluation and evidence.
What Works Growth was founded in 2013 and is co-run by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Centre for Cities. It is part of the Cabinet Office-supported What Works Network – a collection of research centres which support government and public sector organisations to create, share, and use high-quality evidence in decision-making.
What Works Growth focuses on evidence from counterfactual impact evaluation, which measures the effect of a policy on outcomes, using comparisons against a control group. This is known as ‘causal impact’ because these evaluations establish that the intervention caused the change in outcome.
What Works Growth has published evidence reviews for a wide range of local growth policy areas, including business advice, access to finance, and innovation. It also publishes briefings, blogs, and ‘how to’ guides on topics of interest to local growth policymakers and builds capacity in central and local government for evidence use and evaluation through advice, training, events and workshops.
Further reading
GOV.UK — What Works Network
What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth — Evidence topic: Business advice
What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth — Evidence topic: Access to finance
What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth — Evidence topic: Innovation
This entry was written by Victoria Sutherland. Victoria is Deputy Director, Evidence at the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth. Subscribe to the What Works Growth monthly newsletter for updates on evidence publications, events, and blogs.