We use a newly produced data set on growth in occupational licensing of low-income occupations to estimate the relationship between growth in occupational licensing and intergenerational mobility. Our empirical results suggest growth in state licensing is associated with a 1.6% to 6.2% reduction...

The scope and scale of occupational licensing in the United States continues to grow. Our study finds that stricter optician licensing laws and laws that have been in place for longer periods of time result in higher optician earnings. On the other hand, there is little evidence that licensing...

Occupational regulation is a labor market institution that has received a growing amount of attention by researchers. Existing research has explored the effects of occupational regulation on wages and employment. To the best of our knowledge, no existing study has estimated the effect of...

In this paper, we analyze the development of occupational regulation of massage therapists (MTs) in the United States and the effects of state licensing and certification upon their earnings and numbers. Our results suggest that MTs working in states with licensing receive an earnings premium of...