Coauthor: Craig McIntosh

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Using a randomized experiment, this study will benchmark the impact of a youth employment education intervention, Huguka Dukore (HD), to household grants in the Rwandan context. The focus for the study will be on underemployed youth, a high-risk demographic who may display particularly powerful long-term benefits from receiving additional knowledge and resources at a pivotal moment in their transition to adulthood. Youth enrolled in the study will be drawn from Rwamagana, Muhanga and Nyamagabe districts. Within these districts, the study will broadly target individuals from poor households (within the poorest two categories, Ubudehe 1 and 2), but study participants will consist only of individuals who are eligible for HD \textit{and} who express a willingness to enroll in the program at baseline. Impacts will be measured 18 months after baseline; primary outcomes are employment status, time use, beneficiary income, household consumption, and value of productive assets owned by the beneficiary’s household and under beneficiary control. In addition we measure a range of secondary outcomes and intermediate mechanisms. The study is designed to test a cost-equivalent impact from the funder’s perspective, meaning that the amount spent per beneficiary in the two arms is made equivalent. Transfer amounts in the household grants arm are randomized in a range around the expected cost per beneficiary of HD so as to be able to calculate a regression-adjusted costing using the actually observed costs, and in addition a larger transfer amount was chosen so as to maximize the cost-effectiveness of cash given fixed costs. A third arm receives both HD and cash. Careful tracking of costs during implementation will allow the study to provide a cleanly benchmarked impact of an exactly cost-equivalent household grant to HD.