Economic Evaluation in an Age of Uncertainty

Enabling value judgements about policies and programmes is one of evaluation's central tasks. There is, however, little consensus on how evaluators should accomplish this task. The traditional cost–benefit approaches have been found wanting and yet valuing as promoted by checklists or qualitative stakeholder interviews is not anchored to an economic theory and thus inspires little confidence. While no single methodology is likely to be accepted by all, recent developments in economic theory support a new interpretation. This article draws on economic evaluation generally and the evaluation of development projects more specifically. The approach proposes a variant of social cost–benefit analysis (SCBA); it retains the representation of stakeholder values and avoids the more dogmatic, and even mechanical, underpinnings of traditional economic analysis. The article traces the development of this new ‘options-based’ approach and suggests a path for further research. It is argued that this approach warrants a voice in the dialogue on economic evaluation.