On the Possibility of a Bridge between CBA and CEA: Comments on a Paper by Dolan and Edlin

In a recent work by Dolan and Edlin, it is concluded that no link can be established between cost–benefit analysis (CBA) and cost–effectiveness analysis (CEA). However, the conclusion seems to depend rather heavily on what is understood by a link between CBA and CEA as well as on the exact meaning of the latter two terms. We argue that there is at least one approach to CBA and CEA in which the two are very intimately linked. On the other hand, the imitations in the access to preference information has consequences for the kind of questions that can be meaningfully addressed in both CBA and CEA.