Economic Evaluation Methods
Description
Economic evaluation refers to methods for determining the value of a policy, a project, or an intervention. Virtually any consumer, firm or public policy decision involves some sort of economic analysis. For minor decisions it may be sufficient to perform such analysis in your head or to use standard guidelines, but when making major decisions that involve a substantial amount of investment, it is helpful to follow a more explicit and comprehensive process to ensure that all significant impacts (costs, benefits and equity effects) are considered.
This module introduces the basic principles of economic evaluation and the different types of analysis that are available in the context of current practice guidelines. This allows students to learn about the current policy context of each of the methods covered, and their strengths and weaknesses to critically appraise their appropriateness to different contexts.
Learning Outcomes
Distinguish between the various evaluation methodologies used in projects and policy evaluation.
Examine how inclusion of externalities, uncertainty and time can affect the evaluation process.
Analyse application of evaluation of projects and policy across various sectors for example, healthcare, transport, sustainable development
Identify type of analyses required to robustly evaluate policy/intervention and in turn demonstrate the ability to apply models and frameworks from the literature to inform an economic evaluation