Using Cost-Inclusive Methods to Enhance Governmental Effectiveness

As a field, program evaluation has tended to focus on program outcomes, with particular attention on whether program interventions can be causally linked to desired outcomes. But, program evaluation has tended to skim over, or even ignore, the costs of governmental programs. For example, many major textbooks on program evaluation include only 1 chapter, out of 12 or even more chapters, on any cost methodology. This is the more surprising because several appropriate tools for cost inclusion are well developed, including QALYs (Quality-Adjusted Life Years), Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA), and Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA).

Perhaps one reason evaluators often overlook cost-inclusive methods is that considering costs seems to focus on limiting program benefits. Yet, contrariwise, cost-inclusive methodologies can be used to enhance governmental effectiveness, increasing the number of recipients who receive program benefits. Further, cost-inclusive methodologies can be especially useful to justify programs during times of fiscal austerity.

Keynote speaker: 

Heather E. Campbell, PhD, Thornton F. Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy, is Director of the Division of Politics and Economics in the School of Social Science, Policy and Evaluation at the Claremont Graduate University, part of the Claremont Consortium in the city of Claremont, California, USA. She is interested in policy analysis broadly, with a primary focus on urban environmental policy and particularly research in minority-based environmental injustice.