""The role of caseworkers in the labor market integration of young unemployed : Evidence from France""

joint with Pierre Villedieu, Sciences Po

The abstract :
Young people face many difficulties to enter in the labor market after school. Youth centers, called "missions locales", are specially dedicated to help this population in France. We propose to use the quasi-random assignment of caseworkers to youths in selected agencies to study how they can affect youths’ career trajectories. The results show that being assigned to a caseworker whose value added is one standard deviation above the average caseworker increases the probability of work by 8-10% within two years after the first meeting. We also find that the number of cumulative days worked increases by 9% (+20 days). This effect is even stronger for young men with few qualifications.