Four Types of Cost-Inclusive Evaluation and Nine Types of Findings: Which is Best?

This introduction to cost-inclusive evaluation (CIE) portrays, with examples from 50 years of CIEs, a) four types of CIE, b) four positive findings of the nine possible in CIE, and c) what is the best type of CIE and the best finding from CIE. Cost, cost-effectiveness, benefit-only, and cost-benefit analyses are all called “Cost Studies” by different interest groups. The best CIE can be argued to be the one that helps the most interest groups achieve their goals best, with the least expenditure of limited resources such as time, space, equipment, travel, and communications. Often this is cost-effectiveness or cost-benefit analysis. Of the nine possible findings from a basic CIE comparing a program to a counterfactual, only four can be positive for a program. Of the four “good” findings, one poses additional questions for the evaluand. Methods of answering this question also are illustrated with lived evaluation experience.
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