Introduction

It is a curious fact that economic evaluation does not feature at all prominently in the evaluation literature although it has to be a major consideration in any official financing of internally or externally commissioned evaluation research. This chapter will develop the discussion introduced in Chapter Four relating to some of the criteria available to evaluators of public programmes and policies, in particular economy, efficiency and equity. These criteria are of particular significance given that this book has been written at a time when virtually all developed economies are grappling with the aftermath of the crisis in the financial sector that has led to one of the most severe economic recessions of recent times. The bailout of economies by international financial agencies and governments has been a common feature of news bulletins and media reports, and in many countries has led to already stretched public service budgets being faced with unparalleled reductions in financial allocations. As a result, public service professionals have become increasingly vociferous in their claims that levels of service provision are unsustainable in the prevailing economic climate.

However, the need to ensure that services are provided as efficiently as possible, for example, is not something confined to times of fierce economic conditions. Demands that scarce resources are used to the best possible effect have become commonplace.

This comes against a background of increasing expectations and demands from their resident populations, which has resulted in a situation in which the provision and funding of public services are clearly one of the most contentious political issues of the day. This has been captured within the context of health care in terms of the health care dilemma (Phillips and Prowle, 1992), but this concept, of ever increasing demand for services against a background of restrictive supply of resources, can be applied across many areas of public service provision.