Confronta i metodi

	Social Cost-Benefit Analysis for Development	Theory-Based Impact Evaluation
Campo	Development Studies	Development Studies
Famiglia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Anno di origine	1974	2009
Ideatore	Ian Little & James Mirrlees (OECD/UNIDO appraisal traditions)	Carol Weiss; Howard White (3ie)
Tipo	Economic project appraisal method	Evaluation approach / framework
Fonte seminale	Little, I. M. D., & Mirrlees, J. A. (1974). Project Appraisal and Planning for Developing Countries. London: Heinemann / New York: Basic Books. ISBN: 9780465064106	White, H. (2009). Theory-Based Impact Evaluation: Principles and Practice. Journal of Development Effectiveness, 1(3), 271–284.
Alias	Social CBA, Economic Cost-Benefit Analysis, Project Economic Appraisal, Shadow-Price Cost-Benefit Analysis	Theory of Change Evaluation, Contribution Analysis, Theory-Driven Evaluation, Causal-Chain Impact Evaluation
Correlati	4	4
Sintesi	Social cost-benefit analysis (social CBA) is the economic appraisal of development projects from the standpoint of society as a whole rather than the private investor. It values every input and output at its shadow (economic) price — the true opportunity cost or social worth, which in distorted developing-country markets diverges from observed market prices — then discounts the resulting net benefit stream at a social discount rate to compute an economic net present value (ENPV) and economic internal rate of return (EIRR). The method was systematised for developing countries by Ian Little and James Mirrlees and by the parallel UNIDO guidelines.	Theory-based impact evaluation evaluates a programme by first making explicit the theory of change — the causal chain of assumptions and mechanisms through which inputs are expected to produce outcomes and impacts — and then gathering evidence to test whether each link in that chain holds. Rather than treating the programme as a black box and estimating only the net effect, it asks not just whether a programme worked but why, for whom, and under what conditions. Articulated by Carol Weiss and brought into development practice by Howard White and 3ie, it complements, rather than competes with, counterfactual designs.