Blog

Read the latest blogs from the IGL network.

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Four ways public servants can tackle inequality with experimentation

By Nyangala Zolho, Eszter Czibor and Alex Glennie on Tuesday, 23 February 2021.

Public servants have tried to reduce inequality for decades, but it persists. By testing new ideas, gathering information on what works, and looking closely at the impact of interventions, an experimental approach can help improve equality, diversity and inclusion.

Does social entrepreneurship training work? – Only if carefully designed

By Thomas Åstebro & Florian Hoos on Friday, 19 February 2021.

Social entrepreneurship is characterised by a deep commitment to a social cause and the desire to develop new business models with economic, social, and ecological impacts. But can people be trained to become better at social entrepreneurship? HEC Paris Professors Thomas Åstebro and Florian Hoos found that social entrepreneurship training works, but only if carefully designed.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

How can funders enable business support providers to experiment?

By Doug Scott, Cavendish Enterprise on Wednesday, 17 February 2021.

In our previous blog post, we were talking to Doug Scott, Chair of Cavendish Enterprise, about what he learned from leading a randomised trial of the Business Boost scheme, carried out under the UK Government’s Business Basics Programme. In this post, we continue our conversation with Doug, this time focusing on how funders can best manage experimentation funds and ensure that they produce learning that leads to better policy decisions.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Looking behind the scenes of a business support RCT

By Doug Scott, Cavendish Enterprise on Tuesday, 16 February 2021.

In a recent post, we highlighted the findings from the randomised trial of the Business Boost project, carried out by Cavendish Enterprise in collaboration with the Enterprise Research Centre. Since this was the first randomised trial to be completed under the UK Government’s Business Basics Programme, it was a learning process for the implementers, the evaluators, and for us in the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL). Together with a colleague from the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, we recently chatted with Doug Scott, Chair of Cavendish Enterprise and the instigator of the Business Boost trial, to find out what he had learned during the process.

Spotlights photo by Mason Summers on Unsplash

Spotlight: Calling all job market candidates

By Eszter Czibor on Tuesday, 24 November 2020.

The academic job market for economists is different this year: interviews will be conducted online, fly-outs are likely to be virtual, and many departments have postponed their hiring altogether because of the pandemic. At the Innovation Growth Lab, we want to do our part and use our platforms to showcase job market papers related to our fields of work.

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