Goldie and Summers Guests at Benefit-Cost Analysis Workshop

Sue J. Goldie delivered remarks as a special guest at the Methods and Case Studies workshop on benefit-cost analysis (BCA) in global health and development, held on November 2-3, 2017 at Harvard’s Joseph B. Martin Center.

The two-day workshop, an important milestone for the second phase of a project to develop reference case guidelines for benefit‐cost analyses, focused on the discussion of draft methods papers and case studies. After an intense day of dialogue and debate, Goldie spoke from a broader perspective – about why, how and in what ways benefit-cost analysis might prove to be a valuable tool for informing priorities in global health. She also reflected on the role of academia to foster literacy across disciplines to strengthen competency in the next generation of analysts: “If you do not speak the language, you cannot be part of the conversation”.

The workshop also included a spirited conversation between Lawrence Summers and Dean Jamison about the role of benefit-cost analysis in global health and development. This was supported by CHDS Media Hub, who recorded the conversations and created an educational multimedia product from selected parts of the presentation and event Q&A, which was posted by Summers.

The papers presented at the meeting built on the initial scoping report and discuss the conceptual framework, review the relevant literature, and suggest analytic approaches that can be feasibly implemented. They are available from the project website and a CHDS curated resource pack. The project team welcomes comments and feedback through December 8th, 2017, which can be submitted using the online form.

CHDS faculty James K. Hammitt and Lisa A. Robinson are members of a leadership team for this project, together with Dean Jamison (University of California, San Francisco) and David de Ferranti (Results for Development Institute). The project is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

More about the CHDS Media Hub

If you are interested in collaborating with the CHDS Media Hub to create novel multimedia to communicate your decision science research findings, please contact the Media Hub Director, Jake Waxman.

Learn more

In collaboration with the CHDS Media Hub, Robinson designed and produced a video companion to the Benefit-Cost Analysis guidelines reference case, where she discusses the reference case, underlying concepts, and describes its use, as well as videos about the fundamentals and importance of benefit-cost analysis and valuing statistical lives (VSL), answering the question “why benefit-cost analysis?” Watch related video on VSL (~25 min)

Explore the project site for the Guidelines for Benefit-Cost Analysis.