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Huge thanks to my co-authors Arthur Heim, Carlo Barone & Coralie Chevallier, our funders, and all the 30 research assistants who made this trial possible. 🙏

To ensure equal access, administrative simplification is thus needed. But it is not enough. Policymakers must also reform allocation systems and tackle structural inequalities.

7/ Takeaway:
Reducing administrative burden helps families overcome application and information barriers created by the system. Administrative processes can thus themselves be stratification tools, creating a Matthew effect—only those who already have resources can access social programs.

6/ But: applying ≠ accessing.
Despite more applications, access inequalities largely persisted. Daycare access improved mainly for high-SES families. This demonstrates that structural barriers in allocation rules still weigh heavily on immigrant and low-SES families.

5/ Results:
Info alone: almost no effect.
✅ Info + support: boosted applications, especially among low-SES & immigrant families. When low-SES and immigrant families receive the support, it closes the application gap that exist in the control group 🚀

4/ We ran a large RCT with 1,849 families in the Paris region.
Two interventions:
📱 Info only (texts + short videos in FR/EN/AR)
📱+📞 personalised phone support to complete applications

3/ We asked: could information and administrative barriers—not just cost or availability—explain part of this gap?
Think: administrative burdens, complex procedures, lack of information, cognitive overload, or social norms discouraging applications.

3/ We asked: could information and administrative barriers—not just cost or availability—explain part of this gap?
Think: administrative burdens, complex procedures, lack of information, cognitive overload, or social norms discouraging applications.

2/ Why this matters:
Low-SES and immigrant families benefit the most from high-quality early childcare—yet they access it the least. In France, despite relatively abundant and affordable provision, inequalities remain striking.

▶️ Check out the full OECD report: osf.io/preprints/os... www.oecd.org/en/publicati...

▶️ Check out our new preprint (R&R, Nature Human Behaviour 🤩): osf.io/preprints/os...