Driver's License Asset Accrual in Youth Mobility
RCTClinical Trial
Geographic isolation and high credentialing costs create severe mobility bottlenecks for low-income jobseekers living in underprivileged suburbs. When general vocational training options are recommended by counselors, financial constraints prevent youth from acquiring costly, indivisible mobility assets like a driver's license without direct financial assistance.
Picture this
Think of a jobseeker living in a suburb where public transit does not reach commercial industrial parks. To get a job, having a car driver's license is a mandatory prerequisite, but taking driving lessons costs nearly $2,000. Receiving a monthly cash transfer allows the jobseeker to pay for driving lessons over time, acquiring the key credential required to reach distant employment sites.
What the evidence says
Out of all measured human capital investment components, driver's license course enrollment was the only specific outcome significantly increased by cash transfers, rising by 3.0 percentage points (p < 0.05) from a control mean of 41.9% at 12 months, with automobile usage rising to 55.4% by 24 months (p < 0.05).
- Who was studied
- N = 3,413 survey respondents (aged 18–22) across 82 Job Youth Centers in France.
- How
- Randomized controlled trial (RCT) tracking specific human capital investment components (apprenticeships, internships, certified training courses, driver's licenses) at 12 and 24 months.
What to do
Incorporate dedicated mobility allowances or targeted driving instruction vouchers into youth employment programs to overcome spatial mismatch barriers.
From the source
"We detect no effect on any type of employability investment, with the exception of driver's licenses: the number of participants who start a course to obtain their driver's license is 3 percentage points higher in the treatment group, with a mean of 41.9% in the control group."
Conditional_Cash_Transfers_on_the_Labor_Market_Evidence_from_Young.pdf