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Three Criteria for Evaluating Social Programs

Author

Listed:
  • Jorge Luis García
  • James J. Heckman

Abstract

This paper examines the economic foundations of three criteria used for evaluating the costs and benefits of social programs. Some criteria do not consider the scale of programs or address the costs associated with programs that expand or contract the total government budget. A recent addition to the list of evaluation criteria--the marginal value of public funds (MVPF)--does not adopt a social optimality perspective. It evaluates the optimality of expenditures assuming a predetermined aggregate budget without considering the social costs of raising that budget.

Suggested Citation

  • Jorge Luis García & James J. Heckman, 2022. "Three Criteria for Evaluating Social Programs," NBER Working Papers 30507, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30507
    Note: LS TWP
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    Cited by:

    1. Dalla-Zuanna, Antonio & Liu, Kai, 2025. "Using the MVPF to Allocate Treatment Under Imperfect Compliance and Supply-Side Constraints," IZA Discussion Papers 18259, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. Benjamin Collier & Sabrina T. Howell & Lea Rendell, 2024. "After the Storm: How Emergency Liquidity Helps Small Businesses Following Natural Disasters," Working Papers 24-20, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    3. Maxime Fajeau & Julien Grenet & Emma Laveissière & Orane Leonetti, 2025. "Efficacité des politiques éducatives : sources et hypothèses de calcul," Institut des Politiques Publiques halshs-05458929, HAL.
    4. Britta Rude, 2024. "Middle-run educational impacts of comprehensive early childhood interventions: evidence from a pioneer program in Chile," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(2), pages 1-30, June.
    5. Spencer Bastani, 2025. "The marginal value of public funds: a brief guide and application to tax policy," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 32(4), pages 919-956, August.
    6. Montpetit, Sébastien & Beaureard, Pierre-Loup & Carrer, Luisa, 2024. "A welfare analysis of universal childcare: Lessons from a Canadian reform," CLEF Working Paper Series 73, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.
    7. Nicholas Lacoste & Zehra Farooq, 2026. "Optimal Audit Targeting with Machine Learning: Evidence from Pakistan," Working Papers 2603, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    8. Almlund, Mathilde & Andersen, Torben M., 2025. "Ranking public expenditure programs," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    9. Bastani, Spencer, 2023. "The marginal cost of public funds: A brief guide," Working Paper Series 2023:14, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis

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