Occupation-Specific Education Requirements and Occupational Silos: Evidence from CPA Licensing Rules

Anthony Le () and Parth Shah ()
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Anthony Le: University of Chicago - Booth School of Business
Parth Shah: London School of Economics and Political Science

No 2026-16, Working Papers from Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics

Abstract: We study the e!ect of licensing-induced, occupation-specific education requirements on workers’ occupational mobility and earnings. We study this question in the context of Certified Public Accountants’ (CPAs) licensing rules, exploiting the staggered introduction of a change in the number and composition of CPAs’ educational requirements across states. We find that an increase in mandatory accounting-specific credit hours leads to more time spent in accounting jobs, less cross-occupation job switching, and a reduction in the licensing earnings premium. Supplemental analyses indicate that the e!ects represent a specialization of worker skills rather than a general decline in CPAs’ accounting performance. The collective findings suggest that by imposing occupationspecific course requirements, licensing regimes can create less portable human capital, reducing both occupational mobility and the licensing earnings premium.

Keywords: Occupational Licensing; Occupational Mobility; Coursework Requirements; CPAs; Human Capital; 150-Hour Rule (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D45 I21 J24 J44 J62 M41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 92 pages
Date: 2026
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