ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how some publicly funded early interventions may actually yield monetary returns in excess of their costs. It describes the criteria for selecting programs for this cost-savings analysis and shows how the two programs meet the criteria. The chapter compares the program costs to the government with savings they generate in order to determine if public expenditure can be justified on the basis of net savings to the government. It includes some of the benefits to other individuals— those benefits that can be easily and incontrovertibly monetized. This leads to a more comprehensive estimate of the monetary benefit to society of such programs than one can get from the estimate of the benefits to the government alone. Although numerous early-childhood intervention programs have been developed and tested, only a fraction has been evaluated in any fashion.
