Evaluation of Local Economic Development: A Challenge for Policy Research

Local Economic Development (LED) policies and programmes are becoming a well established part of national and local government. The evaluation of programmes and projects draws upon a long series of examples which stretch back to regional policy. The problem with the current 'state of the art' is that it concentrates upon cost per job, albeit with more sophisticated discrimination of the effects. This paper suggests the benefits of placing evaluation in a broader context of performance measures which (a) reflects more fully the objectives of the policy and (b) allows greater insights into comparative effectiveness and thus influences the reallocation of resources.