L.A. Evidential: Improving evidence use in local economic policy making

A widely held (and sensible) view is that policy making should be based on evidence. But it often isn’t. This paper considers why this is the case for local government in the field of economic development. To do this, it sets out a framework for evidence-based policy making. This consists of three ‘pillars’, each made up of key building blocks. Pillar 1 is incentives: these are the rules of the game set by national government to encourage evidence use, from the fiscal and electoral structure of local government to how specific funding for local economic growth creates clarity and certainty for local government to pursue evidencebased policy. Pillar 2 is resources: to make evidence-based policy, local government needs the right data to analyse and existing evidence from previous evaluations, where relevant analysis has already been undertaken. Pillar 3 is capacity: this consists of the institutional capabilities of local government to appraise evidence, determined by their size and national government funding, as well as their staff, skills, and processes. The paper finds that each of these pillars are constrained in local economic policy making, which together limits evidence-based policy making in many parts of local government.