La Bonne Alternance - Firms’ behavioural response to unsolicited applications for apprenticeship positions

Last registered on September 08, 2022

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

La Bonne Alternance - Firms’ behavioural response to unsolicited applications for apprenticeship positions

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0010014

Initial registration date

September 01, 2022

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

September 08, 2022, 11:43 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

France

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Simon Briole

Affiliation

University of Montpellier & Paris School of Economics

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Clément Brébion

PI Affiliation

Copenhagen Business School

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2021-09-01

End date

2023-09-01

Keywords

Labor

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

The goal of the study is to analyze the effects of an internet-based recommender system that identifies establishments likely to hire apprentices in a geographical area of interest. Such a system is expected to improve the targeting of unsolicited applications, thereby enhancing the quality and number of matches between firms and candidates to apprenticeship programs. The system analyzed is a French website, La Bonne Alternance (LBA), rolled out by the French Public Employment Service (Pôle Emploi) in 2018. It is receiving in 2021 about 1.5 million visits per year and displays about 500.000 plants. It has received sizable attention in the public debate because of both its audience and the difficulties to foster high-quality apprenticeships in France. The experiment started in September 2021 and will run until the end of September 2022.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Briole, Simon and Clément Brébion. 2022. "La Bonne Alternance - Firms’ behavioural response to unsolicited applications for apprenticeship positions." AEA RCT Registry. September 08. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10014-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The LBA website is jointly managed by an inter-ministerial mission for apprenticeship training (“La mission apprentissage”) and Pôle Emploi (PE), the French Public Employment Service. It aims at improving the number and the quality of apprenticeship contracts by fostering and improving the outcome of unsolicited applications. On the website, one can find a list of establishments – with their contact details – that are likely to hire apprentices in the selected occupation, at the preferred level of studies and in the geographical area of interest.

Intervention Start Date

2021-09-01

Intervention End Date

2022-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

(i) the number of apprenticeships signed; (ii) the quality of these apprentices and (iii) the short and long term retention rates in the plants

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The estimation strategy consists in inhibiting some of the establishments displayed on the website in a two-step randomisation design à la Crépon et al (2013). First, we randomly draw the proportion of plants to remain on the website (0%, 25%, 75%, 100%) in each of the 420 local labour markets (“bassins d’emplois”). Second, we randomly select plants to remain on the website according to the relevant proportion for their local labour market.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a computer

Randomization Unit

Two-step randomisation design à la Crépon et al (2013) : at the plant level and at the local labour markets (“bassins d’emplois”) level

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

About 500,000 plants

Sample size: planned number of observations

About 500,000 plants

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

We randomly selected 1/10th of the local labour markets where to display 100% of the companies selected by PE’s algorithm, 4/10th of the local labour markets where to display 75% of the establishments selected by the algorithm, 4/10th of the areas where to display 25% of the establishments selected by and the algorithm, and 1/10th of the areas where 0% should remain

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB