What Are Appropriate Tasks for Cost-Effectiveness Analysis?
Cost-effectiveness analysis can offer no help for many important policy-making tasks. It essentially provides information about the costs of improving health by means of a particular intervention. As with any investment decision, the price of something is an important, but not the only, consideration. For example, the cost of building a school—like the cost of building a clinic—will vary depending on its size and location and the materials used. Those choices will affect the cost of schooling per student, which may affect the number of children who can attend and perhaps the quality of their learning. However, without information about price, decision makers cannot see the trade-offs involved in addressing other concerns.
