Thursday, March 02, 2006

Occupational Licensing

From Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution:

Do we need occupational licensing?

Alan Krueger writes:

In a new book, "Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality or Restricting Competition?" (Upjohn Institute, 2006), Morris M. Kleiner, an economist at the University of Minnesota, questions whether occupational licensing has gone too far. He provides much evidence that the balance of occupational licensing has shifted away from protecting consumers and toward limiting the supply of workers in various professions. A result is that services provided by licensed workers are more expensive than necessary and that quality is not noticeably affected.

Read more here. . . . Here is a pdf of part of the book. Here is a home page for the book.

Darn straight. Read these:

Fear of the Free Market -- Part I
Fear of the Free Market -- Part II
Fear of the Free Market -- Part III