OPEN will be hosting a virtual presentation titled "Four Types of Cost-Inclusive Evaluation and Nine Types of Findings: Which is Best?" by Brian Yates, Ph.D.

This introduction to cost-inclusive evaluation (CIE) portrays, with examples from 50 years of CIEs, a) four types of CIE, b) four positive findings of the nine possible in CIE, and c) what is the best type of CIE and the best finding from CIE. Cost, cost-effectiveness, benefit-only, and cost-benefit analyses are all called “Cost Studies” by different interest groups. The best CIE can be argued to be the one that helps the most interest groups achieve their goals best, with the least expenditure of limited resources such as time, space, equipment, travel, and communications. Often this is cost-effectiveness or cost-benefit analysis. Of the nine possible findings from a basic CIE comparing a program to a counterfactual, only four can be positive for a program. Of the four “good” findings, one poses additional questions for the evaluand. Methods of answering this question also are illustrated with lived evaluation experience.

More about our presenter:

A member of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) since its inception, founder of the Costs, Effectiveness, Benefits, and Economics (CEBE) Topical Interest Group (TIG) in 2004, and Treasurer and Board member of AEA 2008 through 2013, Brian Yates received his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University in 1976. He began including costs in evaluation as a graduate student. His 108 publications to date include 6 books, peer-reviewed and invited articles, book chapters, and a 124-page manual for cost-inclusive evaluation published by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse. He joined the full-time faculty of American University in Washington DC in 1976 and retired in 2025 as Professor Emeritus. He continues an active consulting practice.

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