Re‐Examining Advances in Occupational Licensing Research: Issues and Policy Implications
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12488 |
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Author | Morris M. Kleiner,Alex Bryson |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
British Journal of Industrial Relations doi: 10.1111/bjir.12488
57:4 December 2019 0007–1080 pp. 721–731
Re-Examining Advances in
Occupational Licensing Research:
Issues and Policy Implications
Alex Bryson and Morris M. Kleiner
Abstract
Much has changed in the realms of occupational licensing since BJIR last ran
a special issue on the subject in 2010. The number of occupations subject to
licensing has been growing, the data available to investigate the incidence and
eects of licensing have improved immeasurably, and the policy environment
surrounding licensing has changed. This issue reflects these changes with eight
papers from North America and Europe covering the incidence of licensing, and
its eects on wages, inequality, employment,quality of service provision and rent
extraction by the organizations who undertake licensing.
1. Introduction and overview
We last examined the issue of occupational licensing in 2010 with a special
issue consisting of seven articles.In the intervening decade, many factors have
changed in ways that merit a serious re-examination of occupational licensing
and its eects on those in regulated occupations, the broader labour market
and consumers of these goods and services.
First, the number of workers and occupations subject to licensing is
growing. In the United States in the early 1950s around 5 per cent of workers
were in licensed occupations; by 2018 it wasclose to 22 per cent (Cunningham
2019; Kleiner and Krueger 2013). This is partly because several relatively new
occupations such as interior designers, musictherapists and occupational and
physical therapists have successfully lobbied for a licensing regime, and also
because the number of workers in service occupations, where most licensed
practitioners work, has been growing. It is also because, once licensed, it is
rare for occupations to be de-licensed, so that the in-flow to labour markets
with licensing is rising, while the out-flow remains low (Han and Kleiner
Alex Bryson is with UCL, NIESR and IZA. Morris M. Kleiner is with the University of
Minnesota, Federal ReserveBank of Minneapolis and NBER.
C
2019 John Wiley& Sons Ltd.
To continue reading
Request your trial