Americans interested in reducing government inefficiencies a la DOGE should examine state occupational licensing laws (OLLs). Most such laws aid those who can afford to meet licensure requirements, credentialing organizations, and the bureaucrats that administer the resulting maze of rules and regulations.
The result is reduced competition, which means lower service quality and increased consumer prices. Moreover, comparative studies often show OLLs do no better job protecting consumers than market mechanisms do.
OLLs require individuals to obtain some set of credentials—a combination of education, training, and experience—to lawfully engage in various occupations, from braiding hair to performing surgery and arranging flowers to flying airplanes. Most Americans intuit that requiring florists or barbers to obtain formal credentials, which can run into hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars, is overkill because nobody ever died from a bad haircut or ugly arrangement of flowers. Market forces like consumer reviews will induce bad barbers and florists to issue refunds, improve their skills, or find another occupation.
Those who favor OLLs often claim that America licensed trivial occupations, including grocers and tavern keepers, throughout its history—even back into the colonial era. An extensive recent review of state licensing statutes passed before the U.S. Civil War, however, revealed that increasing government revenue, not quality assurance, motivated almost all such early licensing. “License” and “tax” were, in other words, almost synonymous. If governments could not stop “sins” like alcohol consumption, gambling, and prostitution, they could at least tax them!
Continue reading at Townhall.
Edward Timmons, PhD, is a senior fellow at the Archbridge Institute and the founding director of the Knee Regulatory Research Center at West Virginia University. He is regularly asked to provide expert testimony in state legislatures across the U.S. on occupational licensing reform and the practice authority of nurse practitioners. His work is heavily cited by the popular press, and he has authored numerous articles for media publications.
Economics of Flourishing
Americans interested in reducing government inefficiencies a la DOGE should examine state occupational licensing laws (OLLs). Most such laws aid those who can afford to meet licensure requirements, credentialing organizations, and the bureaucrats that administer the resulting maze of rules and regulations.
The result is reduced competition, which means lower service quality and increased consumer prices. Moreover, comparative studies often show OLLs do no better job protecting consumers than market mechanisms do.
OLLs require individuals to obtain some set of credentials—a combination of education, training, and experience—to lawfully engage in various occupations, from braiding hair to performing surgery and arranging flowers to flying airplanes. Most Americans intuit that requiring florists or barbers to obtain formal credentials, which can run into hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars, is overkill because nobody ever died from a bad haircut or ugly arrangement of flowers. Market forces like consumer reviews will induce bad barbers and florists to issue refunds, improve their skills, or find another occupation.
Those who favor OLLs often claim that America licensed trivial occupations, including grocers and tavern keepers, throughout its history—even back into the colonial era. An extensive recent review of state licensing statutes passed before the U.S. Civil War, however, revealed that increasing government revenue, not quality assurance, motivated almost all such early licensing. “License” and “tax” were, in other words, almost synonymous. If governments could not stop “sins” like alcohol consumption, gambling, and prostitution, they could at least tax them!
Continue reading at Townhall.
Edward Timmons
Edward Timmons, PhD, is a senior fellow at the Archbridge Institute and the founding director of the Knee Regulatory Research Center at West Virginia University. He is regularly asked to provide expert testimony in state legislatures across the U.S. on occupational licensing reform and the practice authority of nurse practitioners. His work is heavily cited by the popular press, and he has authored numerous articles for media publications.
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