Strengthening Benefit-Cost Analysis for Early Childhood Interventions Workshop Summary (2009) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 1-8
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Early childhood interventions may focus on educational experiences in preschool classrooms, home visits, parenting education, health and wellness support, or some combination of these approaches. They may identify short- and long-term goals, such as reducing health problems, improving cognitive development and school readiness, or preventing negative behaviors like child abuse or juvenile crime.
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An ad hoc committee, formed to plan the workshop, was asked to explore the following questions: • What state-of-the art examples of benefit-cost methodology can be drawn from evaluation of diverse early childhood interventions, such as home visitation programs; child care programs; Head Start; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children; Bright Beginnings; Healthy Steps; low-birthweight studies; immunization and vaccine studies; Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program; and other areas? How are benefits and costs for children identified and assessed in each program area?
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The report closes with a discussion of the role of benefit-cost analysis in today's policy context, including how to communicate results to policy makers. Appendix A provides a glossary of technical terms used in the report, and Appendix B contains the workshop agenda and a list of participants.
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Lynn Karoly explained that policy makers are particularly interested in analysis that can demonstrate that a dollar invested in a particular area will yield multiple dollars in savings and other benefits -- that is, cost and outcomes analysis. There are four different approaches, with ascending complexity.
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Benefit-cost analysis might be used to look at a single program and demonstrate how that program produces a net benefit or benefits that accrue to different stakeholders. It might also be used to compare programs with one another or to compare different categories of early childhood interventions, such as programs that focus on home visits or programs that provide some form of preschool education.
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Because economic analysis depends on accurate evaluation, analysts must clearly understand the issues that complicate the evaluation. Assessment of Costs Assessment of the true cost of a program needs to capture not just the items shown on budget sheets, but other costs as well, such as time spent by unpaid participants or the value of lost opportunities -- for example, the potential benefits of employment or other opportunities the unpaid participants could otherwise have pursued.
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Work, welfare, crime Increased employment and Increased employment and income income Lower welfare use Lower welfare use Fewer arrests Fewer arrests Health Less child abuse Improved family planning Fewer ER visits Reduced substance abuse NOTE: Outcomes in bold are typically not captured. Outcomes with an asterisk (*
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Analysis that includes projected outcomes for these potential beneficiaries will be constrained by the program design, which would further complicate efforts to standardize. Thus, the current state of benefit-cost analysis of early childhood interventions might be described as promising but still somewhat unset tled.
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