Can you pay an 18-year-old to be ‘cultured’? France gives it a try.

Amid streets lined with soot-washed buildings, the illuminated expanse of windows from Drancy’s local library beckons teens streaming in to get help with their Pass Culture, or Culture Pass, mobile app. The incentive for 18-year-olds to use it is a €500 credit to spend on all things cultural.  

Alan Daniel, a university student, scrolls through the geo-located offerings on his cell phone. “This initiative to give young people easier access to culture is such a good idea because we live in an isolated area,” says Mr. Daniel, a resident of Drancy, one of Paris’s outlying northeastern suburbs. “So to have something that avoids