This research project focuses on the study of poverty trajectories in France, from early childhood to adulthood. It aims to understand how poverty at different stages of the life course has a lasting impact on individual trajectories, by assessing the magnitude of its effects and their cumulative nature. The objective is to analyse the mechanisms through which poverty operates, from various aspects of child development to longer-term outcomes such as cognitive and socio-emotional development, educational pathways, labour market integration, and living conditions in adulthood.
The project adopts both an intergenerational perspective, by examining the impact of poverty inherited from the family background, and an intragenerational approach, by following the trajectories of children exposed to poverty over a long period. One of its main objectives is also to better define and understand what constitutes a “poor child”, beyond conventional indicators (income-based measures, living conditions), which do not fully capture the essential needs for the development of young individuals. Although France currently lacks longitudinal data allowing individuals to be followed from early childhood to adulthood, it is nevertheless possible to reconstruct these trajectories by disentangling the effects of poverty during early childhood from those occurring during adolescence and into adulthood.
The project is conducted within the framework of a doctoral research agreement with France Stratégie.
A first study investigates how, and to what extent, poverty persists across generations in France. To address this question, the study follows a cohort of pupils over sixteen years, from their entry into lower secondary school to age 26–27 (between 2007 and 2023). It shows that the greater the intensity of exposure to poverty in sixth grade, the more disadvantaged individuals’ early adult outcomes: early exit from the education system, a higher probability of being neither in employment, education, nor training (NEET), and a higher likelihood of being in low-paid employment (among the bottom 20% of the cohort’s wage distribution). These gaps between individuals exposed and not exposed to poverty remain significant after controlling for a wide range of family and socio-demographic characteristics measured at the beginning of adolescence.
Moreover, the effects of poverty on life trajectories differ by gender: there is a “female penalty” in terms of the probability of being NEET and of receiving low wages, meaning that poverty has a stronger negative impact on women than on men.
To shed light on the mechanisms underlying this persistence, the study decomposes the effect of poverty during adolescence into direct and indirect effects through three main mediating channels: educational attainment, parenthood, and the socio-economic context of the municipality of residence in early adulthood. These channels differ by gender: for men, educational attainment accounts for most of the effect; for women, parenthood substantially increases the risk of labour market detachment, while having the opposite effect for men. Finally, poverty acts early and persistently on educational attainment, the main mediator of the probability of being NEET, through school-related mechanisms already observable in sixth grade. Early academic difficulties account for most of the mediation leading to leaving school without a high school diploma, while other factors—such as the social environment of the lower secondary school—also reduce the likelihood of obtaining a higher level of qualification.