The paper analyzes the existing approaches to the assessment of long-term development programs (LTDP) based on two different principles. In one case, the choice is based on the economic effectiveness, i. e. the cost-to-effect ratio, in the other case on the economic impact, i. e. an absolute value being the difference between the economic result and the cost of resources. When assessing the economic effectiveness of the LTDP under the conditions of the emerging digital economy, it is proposed to use a criterion measuring the economic impact in the form of gross profit or cash inflows against capital and current costs reduced to a single point in time using the discount factor.