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Monetary Transfers to Disadvantaged Youth in France (RCA)

Last registered on June 15, 2026
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Monetary Transfers to Disadvantaged Youth in France (RCA)
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001395
Initial registration date
June 12, 2026

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
June 15, 2026, 9:40 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
France
Region
Europe

Primary Investigator

Name
Bruno Crepon
Affiliation
CREST
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2010-11-01
End date
2014-04-30
Keywords
Finance & Microfinance
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Many young people enrolled in the French aid agencies for employment seeking seem to have difficulties in reaching sustainable social and professional integration despite the availability of services. Among the reasons given for this lack of sustainability for the efforts made towards social integration of young people, two of them return frequently.

The first is the existence of financial constraints faced by youth: reflecting the lack of financial autonomy of youth, these constraints can thus lead to undertake investment choices in their professional and education career that are very different from those they would have done in the absence of such constraints.

The second is the lack of adherence to the programs these agencies propose. Joining a program for professional and social insertion by these agencies is a binding investment for youth. For instance, constraints occur immediately, and while the benefit of this investment will occur later. The problem of temporal consistency of pursuing an effort reaches all individuals, but it is often highlighted as a crucial psychological dimension of youth behavior.

The project consists on a monetary transfer to youth conditional that the youth are followed by a counselor. It can thus act simultaneously on these two aspects: relaxing financial constraints and the temporal incoherence.

Three questions arise here: (1) the first is whether it can access and maintain sustainable employment; (2) a second issue is whether participation in the program allows young people to register permanently in these agencies (for example, through the number of interviews, enrollment in training, etc.); and (3) a third and important question is about how youth manages the budget.

The evaluation is meant to measure the impact of the program after one and two years in order to observe both intermediate and final outcomes. It is financed by the Youth Experimentation Fund (Fonds d’expérimentation pour la Jeunesse, FEJ) and conducted by The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and the French Economic and Statistical Research Center (CREST) of the French Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE).
External Link(s)
J-PAL Webpage

Registration Citation

Citation
Crepon, Bruno. 2026. "Monetary Transfers to Disadvantaged Youth in France (RCA)." AEA RCT Registry. June 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1395-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
RCA is very similar to the Civis scheme, which is being implemented in France since 2003. Like Civis, RCA was a program implemented by Youth Centers targeting young disadvantaged people who face professional integration problems. Both programs covered similar populations. However, the RCA intervention was only available for young people (18 to 22 years old) who did not benefit from Civis. Although the support provided by both programs is the same, and they both offer privileged access to some jobs, Civis and RCA differ in two main aspects: RCA offers a more generous and automatic financial aid than Civis, and it also lasts longer (two years vs. 9 months for Civis).

RCA follows a Conditional Cash Transfer scheme which offers a monthly allowance for up to two years, conditional on compliance to the program. This allowance is worth 250 Euros during the first year and then decreases gradually and becomes inversely proportional to income over the second year. The cash transfers aim to mitigate the financial constraints which restrain individuals from investing into their integration process, especially during the first year. The scheme also could reduce the temptation of accepting unstable low-pay, low-skill jobs, which interfere with a durable integration into the labor market. Finally, it is meant to restore incentives for an enduring commitment to the inclusion program.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2011-04-01
Intervention End Date
2013-04-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
work status, type of employment, employment stability, income, income source, job search effort, housing stability, self-esteem, consumption of temptation goods
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This experiment focuses on RCA-eligible individuals who signed their first Civis contract* in one of the 82 voluntary Youth Centers between the 1st of February and the 31st of March 2011. Youth Centers were organized into pairs using a matching algorithm. Within each pair of Youth Centers, one was then randomly assigned to a group A and one to a group B. The test group consists of RCA-eligible individuals who have signed a Civis contract in February in B-type Youth Centers or in March in A-type Youth Centers. Other individuals form the control group, who benefit from standard Civis instead of RCA.

* Civis is a government program targeting young disadvantaged people who face professional integration problems, implemented by Youth Centers in France since 2003. (More information in the Intervention section)
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Using a computer
Randomization Unit
Voluntary Youth Centers: Local agencies running job-placement programs.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
82
Sample size: planned number of observations
5491 (2835 control 2656 test)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
2656 in the treatment group and 2835 in the control group.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Fonds d’Expérimentation pour la Jeunesse (FEJ)
IRB Approval Date
Details not available
IRB Approval Number
Details not available
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
April 30, 2013, 12:00 AM +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
April 30, 2014, 12:00 AM +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
82
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
5491 (2835 control 2656 test)
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
2656 in the treatment group and 2835 in the control group.
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials