ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines various techniques of economic evaluation: cost-minimisation, cost-benefit, cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis. Each technique is discussed and cost-effectiveness analysis is advocated for the economic evaluation of counselling. A crucial component of cost-minimisation analysis is that the researcher is properly persuaded that this evidence exists. If this is not the case, it is better to carry out a cost-effectiveness analysis. Unlike cost-minimisation analysis, a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis can be used to make value-for-money comparisons between widely diverging programmes. Cost-effectiveness analysis is used for more focused comparisons than cost-benefit analysis. Cost-utility analysis is a technique that has been constructed specifically for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of programmes in which the outcomes are health benefits. Economic evaluations often include financial costs as proxy measures of opportunity cost where these provide the best information readily available.
