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Abstract
Although short message services (SMS) are constantly used to transmit information, little is known about the use of SMS by public institutions to direct people. This paper presents a field experiment in France about the effectiveness of SMS in directing disadvantaged people toward public services. Two types of treatment SMS were provided: one type had its content written in a formal style; the second type SMS style was much informal. All the SMS were individualized and included specific information about the agencies. Results indicate that the SMS had no significant effect on enrollment. There is also no apparent heterogeneous effect according to individual, agency, or location characteristics. In line with other academic evidence, these findings suggest that SMS have very limited effectiveness in directing this population toward public services.

This thesis focuses on school-to-work transitions and related labor market policies designed to smooth these transitions, especially for young people in difficulty. Based on field experiments carried out in France in 2018 and 2019, it comprises three chapters that add new empirical evidence to the economic literature.The first chapter brings new evidence on the higher employment rate of apprentices than vocational students after graduation. It shows that the success of apprenticeship does not rely, in the French context, on better job access to those who do not remain in their training firms. The expansion of apprenticeship thus has very limited effects on youth unemployment if this is not accompanied by an increase in the retention of apprentices in their training firm.The second chapter contributes to the understanding of employers' preferences regarding young school dropout applicants. It shows that school dropouts who have remained inactive over two years have a significantly smaller chance of being called back for a job compared to non-dropout high school graduates. Subsidized employment and vocational training boost dropouts' chances, but their chances remain still lower. Only the combination of the two policies lets young dropouts to catch up with their non-dropout peers. Manipulation of the profiles indicates that both dropping out of school and inactivity duration entails negative signals for the employers.The third chapter presents a field experiment designed to analyze the effectiveness of text messaging by public assistance agencies seeking to enroll young people who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET). All texts were individualized and included specific information about the agencies. Results indicate that the texts had no significant effect on the probability of going to those agencies. These findings show that sending texts to this population is not an effective strategy for enrolling it more easily.The main argument of the thesis thus advocates closing gaps between schools and ...

This thesis focuses on school-to-work transitions and related labor market policies designed to smooth these transitions, especially for young people in difficulty. Based on field experiments carried out in France in 2018 and 2019, it comprises three chapters that add new empirical evidence to the economic literature.The first chapter brings new evidence on the higher employment rate of apprentices than vocational students after graduation. It shows that the success of apprenticeship does not rely, in the French context, on better job access to those who do not remain in their training firms. The expansion of apprenticeship thus has very limited effects on youth unemployment if this is not accompanied by an increase in the retention of apprentices in their training firm.The second chapter contributes to the understanding of employers' preferences regarding young school dropout applicants. It shows that school dropouts who have remained inactive over two years have a significantly smaller chance of being called back for a job compared to non-dropout high school graduates. Subsidized employment and vocational training boost dropouts' chances, but their chances remain still lower. Only the combination of the two policies lets young dropouts to catch up with their non-dropout peers. Manipulation of the profiles indicates that both dropping out of school and inactivity duration entails negative signals for the employers.The third chapter presents a field experiment designed to analyze the effectiveness of text messaging by public assistance agencies seeking to enroll young people who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET). All texts were individualized and included specific information about the agencies. Results indicate that the texts had no significant effect on the probability of going to those agencies. These findings show that sending texts to this population is not an effective strategy for enrolling it more easily.The main argument of the thesis thus advocates closing gaps between schools and ...

This thesis focuses on school-to-work transitions and related labor market policies designed to smooth these transitions, especially for young people in difficulty. Based on field experiments carried out in France in 2018 and 2019, it comprises three chapters that add new empirical evidence to the economic literature.The first chapter brings new evidence on the higher employment rate of apprentices than vocational students after graduation. It shows that the success of apprenticeship does not rely, in the French context, on better job access to those who do not remain in their training firms. The expansion of apprenticeship thus has very limited effects on youth unemployment if this is not accompanied by an increase in the retention of apprentices in their training firm.The second chapter contributes to the understanding of employers' preferences regarding young school dropout applicants. It shows that school dropouts who have remained inactive over two years have a significantly smaller chance of being called back for a job compared to non-dropout high school graduates. Subsidized employment and vocational training boost dropouts' chances, but their chances remain still lower. Only the combination of the two policies lets young dropouts to catch up with their non-dropout peers. Manipulation of the profiles indicates that both dropping out of school and inactivity duration entails negative signals for the employers.The third chapter presents a field experiment designed to analyze the effectiveness of text messaging by public assistance agencies seeking to enroll young people who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET). All texts were individualized and included specific information about the agencies. Results indicate that the texts had no significant effect on the probability of going to those agencies. These findings show that sending texts to this population is not an effective strategy for enrolling it more easily.The main argument of the thesis thus advocates closing gaps between schools and ...

This thesis focuses on school-to-work transitions and related labor market policies designed to smooth these transitions, especially for young people in difficulty. Based on field experiments carried out in France in 2018 and 2019, it comprises three chapters that add new empirical evidence to the economic literature.The first chapter brings new evidence on the higher employment rate of apprentices than vocational students after graduation. It shows that the success of apprenticeship does not rely, in the French context, on better job access to those who do not remain in their training firms. The expansion of apprenticeship thus has very limited effects on youth unemployment if this is not accompanied by an increase in the retention of apprentices in their training firm.The second chapter contributes to the understanding of employers' preferences regarding young school dropout applicants. It shows that school dropouts who have remained inactive over two years have a significantly smaller chance of being called back for a job compared to non-dropout high school graduates. Subsidized employment and vocational training boost dropouts' chances, but their chances remain still lower. Only the combination of the two policies lets young dropouts to catch up with their non-dropout peers. Manipulation of the profiles indicates that both dropping out of school and inactivity duration entails negative signals for the employers.The third chapter presents a field experiment designed to analyze the effectiveness of text messaging by public assistance agencies seeking to enroll young people who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET). All texts were individualized and included specific information about the agencies. Results indicate that the texts had no significant effect on the probability of going to those agencies. These findings show that sending texts to this population is not an effective strategy for enrolling it more easily.The main argument of the thesis thus advocates closing gaps between schools and ...

This thesis focuses on school-to-work transitions and related labor market policies designed to smooth these transitions, especially for young people in difficulty. Based on field experiments carried out in France in 2018 and 2019, it comprises three chapters that add new empirical evidence to the economic literature.The first chapter brings new evidence on the higher employment rate of apprentices than vocational students after graduation. It shows that the success of apprenticeship does not rely, in the French context, on better job access to those who do not remain in their training firms. The expansion of apprenticeship thus has very limited effects on youth unemployment if this is not accompanied by an increase in the retention of apprentices in their training firm.The second chapter contributes to the understanding of employers' preferences regarding young school dropout applicants. It shows that school dropouts who have remained inactive over two years have a significantly smaller chance of being called back for a job compared to non-dropout high school graduates. Subsidized employment and vocational training boost dropouts' chances, but their chances remain still lower. Only the combination of the two policies lets young dropouts to catch up with their non-dropout peers. Manipulation of the profiles indicates that both dropping out of school and inactivity duration entails negative signals for the employers.The third chapter presents a field experiment designed to analyze the effectiveness of text messaging by public assistance agencies seeking to enroll young people who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET). All texts were individualized and included specific information about the agencies. Results indicate that the texts had no significant effect on the probability of going to those agencies. These findings show that sending texts to this population is not an effective strategy for enrolling it more easily.The main argument of the thesis thus advocates closing gaps between schools and ...

Sciences Po Economics Discussion Papers In France, two years after school completion and getting the same diploma, the employment rate of apprentices is about 15 percentage points higher than that of vocational students. Despite this difference, this paper shows that there is almost no difference between the probability of getting a callback from employers for unemployed youth formerly either apprentices or vocational students. This result indicates that the higher employment rate of apprentices does not rely, in the French context, on better job access of those who do not remain in their training firms. The estimation of a job search and matching model shows that the expansion of apprenticeship has very limited effects on youth unemployment if this is not accompanied by an increase in the retention of apprentices in their training firm.