Licensing Occupations

Ensuring Quality or Restricting Competition?

Introductory chapter | Table of Contents

“If you thought licensing was a boring minor issue in the labor market, this book will make you think again.”

-Richard B. Freeman, Harvard University

"Elegant, ingenious, full of detail and peppered with dry wit, Morris Kleiner has produced a terrific research monograph."

-British Journal of Industrial Relations

However, this lack of attention is not because occupational licensing is diminishing in the labor market. Since the 1950s, licensing coverage has grown from about 5 percent of the workforce to more than 20 percent, while unions have declined from about a third of the workforce to less than 13 percent, and to less than 8 percent in the private sector. In addition, approximately 50 occupations are licensed in all states, and about 800 occupations are similarly regulated in at least one state.

This pathbreaking book reveals the impacts of occupational licensing on the economies of the United States and several EU countries. Kleiner provides a thorough and up-to-date examination of the costs and benefits of occupational licensing (OL). He offers an explanation for the growth of OL, defines the winners and losers in terms of earnings and the quality of services provided by licensees, compares the differing labor market and price impacts of OL in the United States and Europe, provides evidence on the overall net impacts of OL for society, and offers policy alternatives to OL.

195 pp. 2006.
$40 cloth ISBN 0-88099-285-9 / ISBN-13 978-0-88099-285-5
$18 paper ISBN 0-88099-284-0 / ISBN-13 978-0-88099-284-8

“Morris Kleiner has produced the most thorough evaluation of the effects of occupational licensing in years, perhaps ever. In a rational world, this book would provoke interest by policymakers and the public in reconsidering where occupational licensing is beneficial for society, and where it is beneficial for those lucky enough to be granted licenses but not for society as a whole.”

-Alan B. Krueger, Princeton University

“If you thought licensing was a boring minor issue in the labor market, this book will make you think again. Kleiner shows that a larger proportion of the workforce is licensed than is in unions, and that licensing raises wages and lowers employment without demonstrably improving the quality of services.”

-Richard B. Freeman, Harvard University

"All facts and potential consequences of licensing occupations will be better understood after reading this wonderful and timely book.”

-Francis Kramarz, Crest-Insee and Ecole Polytechnique, France

“In Licensing Occupations, Morris Kleiner opens the way for a long-overdue national dialogue on the efficacy of the U.S. professional and occupational regulatory system. His work will surely excite numerous and varied responses from public protection stakeholders.”

-Pam Brinegar, Council on Licensure, Enforcement, and Regulation (CLEAR)

“Occupational licensure is stealth regulation. It has a profound impact on labor markets and prices without getting nearly the scrutiny that other labor market interventions do. Morris Kleiner has brought the light of day to this increasingly important topic, laying out the history and economic impact of the steady rise in the number of licensed occupations. In the process, he asks the most important question of all: Is this good for consumers?”

-Charles Wheelan, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago

“In this magisterial book Morris Kleiner documents what we know about the impact of occupational licensing and presents his own research findings. Kleiner is particularly good on international comparisons. His detailed analysis of licensing in France, Germany and the UK suggests there are much lower wage effects of licensing in the EU than in the U.S. This is a consequence of more intense EU regulation of prices charged and of the organisational structure of the professions.”

-David Metcalf, London School of Economics

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