Economic Evaluation In Education

The past decade has seen increased attention to cost-effectiveness and benefit-cost analysis in education as administrators are being asked to accomplish more with the same or even fewer resources, philanthropists are keen to calculate their "return on investment" in social programs, and the general public is increasingly scrutinizing how resources are allocated to schools and colleges. This text (titled Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in its previous editions) is the only full-length book to provide readers with the step-by-step methods they need to plan and implement a benefit-cost analysis in education. The authors examine a range of issues, including how to identify, measure, and distribute costs; how to measure effectiveness, utility, and benefits; and how to incorporate cost evaluations into the decision-making process. The updates to the Third Edition reflect the considerable methodological development in the evaluation literature, and the greater empiricism practiced by education researchers, to help readers learn to apply more advanced methods to their own analyses. SAGE congratulates author Henry M. Levin, winner of the 2017 AERA Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award.

There are so many ways in which health might be improved today and, as technology improves, the opportunities will increase. However, there are limits to budgets as well as other resources so choices have to be made about what to spend money and time on. Economic evaluation can help set out the value of the costs and benefits from competing choices. This book examines how to undertake economic evaluation of health care interventions in low, middle and high income countries. It covers: Ways in which economic evaluations might be structured Approaches to measuring and valuing costs and effects Interpreting and presenting evidence Appraising the quality and usefulness of economic evaluations Series Editors: Rosalind Plowman and Nicki Thorogood.

Volumes have been written about the value of more and better education. But is there sufficient evidence to support the commonly held belief that we, as individuals and as a community, should be investing more in education? This book explores that question in unprecedented detail, drawing on empirical evidence from an impressive array of sources. While much of the focus is on the educational system in the United Kingdom, the book offers lessons of international applicability. A state-of-the-art compendium on education policy and its impact on educational attainment, the book examines numerous large-scale data sources on individual pupils and schools. The questions the book considers are far-ranging: How much do teachers matter for children's educational attainment? What payoff do people get from acquiring more education when they enter the labor market? How well do education systems function to provide employers with the skills they want? The book concludes by issuing some strong policy recommendations and offering an evaluation of what does and does not work in improving educational attainment. The recommendations address such issues as school effectiveness, education financing, individual investment in education, government education initiatives, higher education, labor market rewards, and lifelong learning.

Cost-effectiveness analysis allows researchers and evaluators to determine if a particular program or policy has attained maximum effectiveness for a given budget. This book introduces cost-effectiveness analysis and gives readers step-by-step methods to plan and implement a cost-analysis study. It explains and illustrates the four major techniques : cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, cost-utility, and cost-feasibility. It discusses choice of analysis, implementation, the nature of costs (including how to identify, measure, and distribute costs); measuring effectiveness, utility, and benefits; and, lastly the difficulties of including cost evaluations in the decision making process. Each chapter ends with exercises that enable readers to sharpen their ability to evaluate policy options and program effectiveness.

This Handbook features the best teaching practices in the Health Economics (HE) field over the past decade. HE is still considered a new field in the world of economics. The teaching materials are designed for and suitable to HE specializations housed in economics departments, schools of public health, health professions, health sciences, nursing, pharmacy, business, or public/health administration.

This study presents a cost-benefit approach to education that attempts to take into account a number of considerations left aside by previous studies. It concentrates on the income effects of education and provides a framework for an economic evaluation. The data derive from private and social rates of return to investment in education, wage employment alternatives for the future, and rates of return to increasing different kinds of expenditures per pupil. While the data from the study apply to the Kenyan case only, the conceptual framework and analytical methods employed in this exercise have wider applicability; it is on these concepts and methods rather than on the particular situation in one country that attention is focused. The study attempts to meet the usual objections raised in applying a cost-benefit approach to expenditure on a social product such as education. In addition to the analysis of the overall rates of return, the study analyzes the influences of educational policy variables, such as size of school, pupil-teacher ratio, teachers' salaries per pupil, on students' scores on the three major examinations. It then assesses the returns, in terms of additional earnings, to increased inputs into the school system.

In today's world of scare resources, determining the optimal allocation of funds to preventive health care interventions (PHIs) is a challenge. The upfront investments needed must be viewed as long term projects, the benefits of which we will experience in the future. The long term positive change to PHIs from economic investment can be seen across multiple sectors such as health care, education, employment and beyond. Applied Health Economics for Public Health Practice and Research is the fifth in the series of Handbooks in Health Economic Evaluation. It presents new research on health economics methodology and application to the evaluation of public health interventions. Looking at traditional as well as novel methods of economic evaluation, the book covers the history of economics of public health and the economic rationale for government investment in prevention. In addition, it looks at principles of health economics, evidence synthesis, key methods of economic evaluation with accompanying case studies, and much more. Looking to the future, Applied Health Economics for Public Health Practice and Research presents priorities for research in the field of public health economics. It acknowledges the role played by natural environment in promoting better health, and the place of genetics, environment and socioeconomic status in determining population health. Ideal for health economists, public health researchers, local government workers, health care professionals, and those responsible for health policy development. Applied Health Economics for Public Health Practice and Research is an important contribution to the economic discussion of public health and resource allocation.