The Prevalence and Effects of Occupational Licensing

Morris Kleiner and Alan Krueger
Additional contact information
Morris Kleiner: University of Minnesota and NBER

No 1069, Working Papers from Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.

Abstract: This study provides the first nation-wide analysis of the labor market implications of occupational licensing for the U.S. labor market, using data from a specially designed Gallup survey. We find that in 2006, 29 percent of the workforce was required to hold an occupational license from a government agency, which is a higher percentage than that found in studies that rely on state-level occupational licensing data. Workers who have higher levels of education are more likely to work in jobs that require a license. Union workers and government employees are more likely to have a license requirement than are nonunion or private sector employees. Our multivariate estimates suggest that licensing has about the same quantitative impact on wages as do unions -- that is about 15 percent, but unlike unions which reduce variance in wages, licensing does not significantly reduce wage dispersion for individuals in licensed jobs.

Keywords: occupational licensing; regulation; wages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J8 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-08
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://dataspace.princeton.edu/bitstream/88435/dsp015d86p022b/1/531.pdf
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 500 Internal Server Error

Related works:
Journal Article: The Prevalence and Effects of Occupational Licensing (2010)
Working Paper: The Prevalence and Effects of Occupational Licensing (2008)
Working Paper: The Prevalence and Effects of Occupational Licensing (2008)
Working Paper: The Prevalence and Effects of Occupational Licensing (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pri:indrel:531

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bobray Bordelon ().