Occupational licensing raises barriers, not quality. In an alarming number of U.S. professions, would-be practitioners have to obtain a government permission slip to work legally. This sort of occupational licensing might make sense for, say, doctors and pharmacists; less so for tree trimmers and tour guides. A lot of it seems to come down to gatekeeping—that is, existing workers and businesses wanting to keep the number of new entrants into the market low.
Proponents of occupational licensing (including politicians, people in licensed professions, and members of the general public who accept their rationale) will tell you that licensing schemes exist to ensure that workers are well qualified. But a new report from the Institute for Justice (IJ) challenges this conventional (and self-serving) wisdom.
