The presence of an economic justification for
government to “do something” does not complete
the economic argument. What is needed in addition
is the evidence that if only something is done, then the
“benefits” (appropriately defined) at least outweigh the
“costs” (also appropriately defined) of the intervention.
This chapter discusses precisely those two key steps
involved in undertaking a “value for money” assessment:
how do we arrive at cost and benefit estimates of social
determinants of health interventions? As will become
clear, in particular the assessment of the benefits poses
important challenges that researchers and policy-makers
need to be aware of when using and requesting such
evidence.