ABSTRACT
Cost-effectiveness analysis is less complex than cost-benefit analysis. Typically, the cost of each option in cost-benefit analysis differs from the cost of other options, and so do the benefits. Sorting out all the moving parts and selecting the best choice can be difficult. Cost-effectiveness analysis is more straightforward, because one side of the equation is fixed: all the options cost the same, so the analysis can focus on differences in benefits, or all the benefits are the same and the analysis can focus on differences in costs. Still, good cost-effectiveness analysis requires considerable analytic care.
