Taking into account direct and indirect impacts when measuring the performance of social entreprises

The present article aims to provide a synthetical analysis of the various methods used to measure the non-market dimension of a product. In a first stage, we define the various notions linked to the dimensions of the production of a "merit good": direct and indirect impacts, externalities, collective impacts, etc. We then envisage the way in which these various dimensions are generally measured in economic literature, and we highlight the advantages and drawbacks of the various methods.
We attempt to demonstrate why the method based on the economic value of a non-market production, despite its advantages and its success, raises many methodological, but also, more fundamentally, conceptual questions, which jeopardise the reliability of the estimations produced. As far as the production of social enterprises is concerned, the article will thus make a case for a more classical approach, mainly based on the method of indicators.