Economic evaluation in social and health services

This paper discusses the potential advantages of a widespread application of economic evaluation methods to social care, an area of research that has been neglected so far, in comparison with the success of these techniques in health economics. We first briefly describe the different methods of analysis and, then, we outline the main features of social care services and assess how standard methodologies should be adjusted in order to accommodate the main peculiarities of the field. After shortly reviewing the existing literature at the international level, with a particular focus on the Italian case, we draw some conclusions by highlighting the most promising areas for future research.