Occupational Licensing: US and International

The potential benefit of having the government require that certain jobs require an official license is quality control and protection. Personally, I rather like knowing that my nurse or doctor or dentist has gone through courses and training. The potential cost is that requirement to have a government license can become a way for those who have a job to limit the number of people who can do that job, and thus to push up their own wages, rather than offering benefits to consumers. What economists call a “Baptists-and-bootleggers” coalition can form (for more background, see here and here). The Baptists and the bootleggers both supported legal limitations on alcohol: the Baptists for moral concerns, and the bootleggers because legal limits made their business more profitable. In every job, there is inevitably going to be an example or two where a customer is treated in a way that is personally harmful or financially costly or both. A coalition will form where one set of participants…