This article examines the relationship between the social evaluation of public investment projects and the real options, through a literature review, which allows the construction of a conceptual framework.

The traditional technique for evaluating public investment alternatives, through cost-benefit analysis, does not incorporate the flexibility available to society in the evaluation model. To correct this flaw, a complementary methodology called real options arises, which has been studied and applied to the valuation of private investments, but not to the social evaluations of projects carried out by the public sector on behalf of society (Myers, 1977; Kester , 1984; Brennan and Schwartz, 1985a).

The social evaluation measures the contribution of investment projects to the well-being of society. On the other hand, economic science has established economic growth as an approximation of social welfare. For this reason, the relationship between flexibility and economic growth is first examined conceptually, and evidence is provided that allows to substantiate the use of real options as a complementary method to the current methodology, capturing conceptually and analytically the management of flexibility by the society.