Economic analysis of surveillance systems/components should be required as an aid to decision-making in surveillance to inform the allocation of scarce resources. I
t shows the consequences of alternatives and helps to identify which of these is to be preferred from an economic point of view.
Economics is a discipline focused on the efficiency criteria for making choices between alternative uses of limited resources. It provides robust criteria to assess how decisions about the allocation of resources impact on the well-being of different groups of people in society and for society as a whole.
A unifying underlying principle of economic analyses is to provide a measure of the relative value attached to competing alternative strategies and thereby facilitate decisions about the allocation of resources.

Link to the description of the methods commonly used for the economic evaluation of surveillance.