MG4H3E      Half Unit
Social Impact and Its Evaluation

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

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Those who want to improve society face three immediate dilemmas – first, what is the public benefit? How can I define, with clarity, my moral purpose? Second, how can I decide between different courses of action in order to pursue the public benefit? And third, how can I know that what I do makes a contribution to the public benefit? What is the evidence?

This innovative course sets out to support students in coming to their own resolutions of these dilemmas.  Its goal is to introduce the concepts and techniques of impact measurement from the perspective of - and through specific examples of interest to – organisational leaders and policymakers and those who intend to commission social business and social enterprise interventions.

Our choices of outcomes and impact measures are not neutral, but infused with moral choices about the definition of the public good. The first section of the course therefore challenges students to consider and discuss the nature of public benefit. It introduces students to different philosophical conceptions of the good, including constitutional values, libertarianism, utilitarianism, Rawls’ theory of justice and Sen’s capabilities approach.

The second (and larger section) of the course introduces students to key concepts and skills in developing and assessing evidence of social impact.  It introduces students to a framework that will enable them to be intelligent commissioners of interventions for the public good and critical assessors of evidence and published research. Concepts to which students will be introduced include the distinction between correlation and causation, the counterfactual, opportunity costs, trade-offs, spillovers and substitution effects. Students will be introduced to techniques through which the effectiveness of social interventions can be evaluated, including randomised experiments, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses and realistic evaluation approaches. The strengths and weaknesses of each of these methods are considered. Finally, the course concludes with a consideration of how evaluation can inform project management to maximise impact.

Ten sessions of three hours each, delivered across two modules (teaching blocks).

Two formative assessments will be provided - a critical assessment of an evaluation report and an in-class group exercise.

• Glennerster, R. and Takaarasha, K. (2013).  Running Randomised Evaluations: A Practical Guide.  Princeton: Princeton University Press
• Layard, R. and S. Glaister (1994). Cost-Benefit Analysis.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• McAskill, W. (2016) Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference.   London: Guardian Books.
• Mill, J.S. (1859/2006).  On Liberty.  London: Penguin
• Nussbaum, M. (2011). Creating Capabilities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
• Pawson, R. and N. Tilley (1997). Realistic evaluation. London: Sage.
• Rawls, J. (1971), A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

Learning Log / reflective learning report (30%)

Critical evaluation (70%)

Assessment will be through an individual coursework assignment (100%)