There is a consensus that there is an earnings premium for licensed workers relative to unlicensed workers. However, little is known about how occupational licensing affects earnings inequality. In this paper, we study dynamic, heterogeneous earnings effects of occupational licensing and draw...

Occupational licensing directly affects nearly 30 percent of U.S. workers today and continues to grow in density and scope. In this article, we identify and analyze those rare instances when occupational licensing laws have been eliminated — what we refer to as “de-licensing.” We also...

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...

Designing occupational regulations capable of balancing the need to protect consumers on the one hand with the need to minimize barriers to employment and entrepreneurship on the other has become a public policy priority in many countries, including China. In a State Council executive meeting on...

Occupational licensing continues to receive attention from both researchers and policymakers. In this article we document and analyze cases of de-licensing in the US over the period 2015 to 2020. We find that the number of cases of successful de-licensing has significantly increased over that of...