This chapter gives an overview of benefit-cost analysis (BCA) and similar evaluation tools, such as cost-effectiveness analysis and technology-based standards, in the context of public health. We describe these evaluation tools, how they are used, their shortcomings, and how they should be interpreted. As with other powerful tools, they are subject to misuse and misinterpretation, even by profe...

Formal analyses can be valuable aids to decision-making if their limits are understood. Those limits arise from the two forms of subjectivity found in all analyses: ethical judgments, made when setting the terms of an analysis, and scientific judgments, made when conducting it. As formal analysis has assumed a larger role in policy decisions, awareness of those judgments has grown, as have meth...

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) evaluates actions in terms of negative consequences (costs) and positive consequences (benefits). Though much has been said on CBA, little attention has been paid to the types of values held by costs and benefits. This paper introduces a simple typology of values in CBA and applies it to three forms of CBA: the common, money-based CBA, CBA based in social welfare, an...

BACKGROUND Helicobacter pylori screening may markedly reduce mortality and morbidity in the decades ahead. AIMS This study explores the costs and benefits of population-based H. pylori screening in terms of health care cost taking into account all relevant H. pylori-related diseases. MATERIAL AND METHODS The computer-based decision analysis compared two strategies: (1) screen for H. pylori ...

Conventional benefit-cost analysis incorporates the normally reasonable assumption that the policy or project under examination is marginal. In particular, it is assumed that the policy or project does not change the underlying growth rate of the economy. However, this assumption may be inappropriate in some important circumstances, notably responding to climate change. One example is the benef...

The paper studies a specific research query of developing an analytical method for comparing two integrity mechanisms. Towards this a generic business process is modeled as an integral to a closed loop information and control system. Competitive advantage requires informational work from this business process information system (IS) is maximized. This IS is a multiple stage decision process and...

There are few development organizations that have fully integrated usability activities as an integral part of their product development projects. One reason for this is that the benefits of better usability are not visible for the management. In this paper, the characteristics of selected published usability cost-benefit models are analyzed. These models have different approaches for identifyi...

The debate about the effectiveness of investments in public infrastructure initiated by Aschauer suggests that there may be substantial discrepancies between the results of conventional cost-benefit analysis and the ultimate effects of such investments on welfare. This paper takes a closer look at this issue by investigating the existence of secondary or indirect effects under conditions of mon...

The continuing efforts in the 104th Congress to legislate requirements for cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and the revised Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines for the conduct of such assessments during a regulatory rulemaking process highlight the need for a comprehensive examination of the role that CBA can play in agency decision-making. This paper summarizes the state of knowledge r...