Читать книгу Economic Evaluation in Education - Henry M. Levin - Страница 13

One of the more confusing aspects of incorporating cost analysis into evaluation and decisionmaking is that a number of different, but related, terms are often used interchangeably. These include cost (along with cost-feasibility), cost-effectiveness (along with cost-utility) analysis, and benefit-cost analysis. Although each is related to and can be considered to be a member in good standing of the cost-analysis family, each has important differences that make it appropriate to specific applications (Levin, 1975). Here we provide an overview of each approach and the main differences among them; a full explanation is given in the relevant chapters. We demonstrate the key ideas and practice with concrete examples from the educational literature. These examples are not intended to inform readers of which interventions are actually most efficient; rather, they are illustrative of what is involved in an economic evaluation.