In France, women who are left alone to bring up their children are eligible for a specific minimum income allowance, called api (“Allocation de parent isolé”). This cash assistance is time-limited: api is granted either for 12 months at most or until the youngest child is 3. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the individual trajectories of mothers leaving api. Using longitudinal data from a panel of recipients in the local administrative area of Meurthe-et-Moselle, three aspects are considered: labor force participation, rmi receipt, and return to api. Results from a polytomous logit model show that the employment status over the api receipt spell is one of the main determinants of the post-exit trajectory.
Classification JEL: I 38