VfI backstory and overview

The post outlines the background and development of a new approach to assessing value for money (VfM) in public policies and social programs. King identifies a key problem: while there's increasing pressure to demonstrate VfM in public programs, traditional assessment methods are incomplete, with economics and evaluation operating as separate rather than integrated disciplines. Key points about the research development: 1. King developed a conceptual model for VfM evaluation, published in the American Journal of Evaluation 2. He analyzed how Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) measured against this model, finding significant gaps 4. He created a process model and tested it through real-world consulting work 5. The research was validated through case studies of actual programs The research made seven major contributions to evaluation: 1. Established VfM as an evaluative question requiring evidence-based judgment 2. Showed VfM as bridging evaluation and economics disciplines 3. Positioned CBA as a form of evaluation rather than a rival to it 4. Demonstrated CBA's limitations when used alone 5. Developed a stronger approach using evaluative reasoning with mixed methods 6. Applied program evaluation standards to economic evaluation 7. Demonstrated use of probative inference in validating the conceptual model The post concludes by pointing readers to various resources, including King's PhD dissertation, practical guidance documents developed with various organizations, and over 100 Substack articles exploring these concepts in detail.