Public interest or policy diffusion: Analyzing the effects of massage therapist municipal licensing

Darwyyn Deyo (), Kofi Ampaabeng, Conor Norris and Edward Timmons
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Kofi Ampaabeng: George Mason University
Conor Norris: West Virginia University

No 22-02, Working Papers from Department of Economics, West Virginia University

Abstract: Massage therapy is widely licensed by the states. However, municipalities also often passed massage therapist licensing, motivated by preventing prostitution. Using a novel dataset on municipal licensing and crime data from the FBI, we test if local massage therapist licensing reduced prostitution. We also test a policy diffusion hypothesis, in which cities pass responsive massage therapist licensing. We find that municipal massage therapist licensing does not lead to a reduction in prostitution, but we find support for the policy diffusion hypothesis, with municipalities up to 65% more likely to pass responsive licensing within three years of their neighbor doing so.

Keywords: Economics of crime; occupational licensing; policing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J44 K29 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2022-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wvu:wpaper:22-02

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