Browse guidance, case studies, evidence reviews, toolkits and more.

Select the ‘Evidence briefing’ filter in our resource library to access our published evidence briefings.

Evidence briefings provide a framework to help local policymakers think through the benefits and costs of pursuing a policy. Reflecting What Works Growth’s remit, they focus on understanding the potential benefits for local economic performance, but some also look at wider benefits that are likely to have local economic benefits over the longer term.

Select the ‘Evidence review’ filter in our resource library to access our evidence briefings.

Our evidence reviews and rapid evidence reviews identify and summarise what we know about the impact of different policies and activities on local economic growth. They consider a specific type of evidence – impact evaluation – that seeks to understand the causal effect of policy interventions and to establish their cost-effectiveness. They provide an overall picture of what can be achieved based on what it is known from the existing impact evaluations of a policy area. For example, our review of rail investment examines the impact of new stations and other investments on local property prices, employment, and business outcomes.

Select the ‘Evidence toolkits’ filter in our resource library to access our evidence briefings.

Our toolkits present evidence-based lessons for decision makers on practical questions (e.g. whether financial incentives can increase take up of employment training, or  whether accelerators and incubators improve business performance). They aim to summarise the available ex-post (i.e. after introduction) evaluation evidence on aspects of policy design.

As the evidence reviews, what works growth toolkits consider a specific type of evidence – impact evaluation – that seeks to understand the causal effect of policy interventions and to establish their cost-effectiveness.

Select the ‘Case studies’ filter in our resource library to access examples of impact evaluation studies of previous policies. Each evaluation case study has met our minimum standard of evidence.

Select the ‘How to resource’ filter in our resource library to access our guides.

The library also contains guidance for people designing policy or commissioning evaluations, e.g., using logic models, conducting impact evaluation, and using data.