| Session Title: The Core Concepts of Applied Cost-Effectiveness and Cost-Benefit Analysis |
| Skill-Building Workshop 607 to be held in Centennial Section H on Friday, Nov 7, 1:35 PM to 3:05 PM |
| Sponsored by the Costs, Effectiveness, Benefits, and Economics TIG |
| Presenter(s): |
| Patricia Herman, University of Arizona, pherman@email.arizona.edu |
| Brian Yates, American University, brian.yates@mac.com |
| Abstract: To engage decision-makers who are charged with doing more for clients and taxpayers with dwindling private and public resources, evaluators increasingly need to measure and improve not just effectiveness but also cost-effectiveness. Because cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) must start from the determination of effectiveness, an efficient approach is for evaluators to add measures of costs to their planned studies, thus allowing CEA (and if effects are monetizable, cost-benefit analysis or CBA) to be performed. This workshop is gives evaluators both conceptual foundations for the proper application of cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis, and concrete tools for cost and benefit assessment. Core concepts taught through hands-on examples include the appropriate counterfactual, the perspective of the analysis and its implications, and the identification and measurement of the appropriate costs, effectiveness, and benefits so that the cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit of alternative programs can be compared and optimized. Specific assessment tools are referenced as well. |