TY  - JOUR
AU  - Law,Marc T.
AU  - Kim,Sukkoo
TI  - Specialization and Regulation: The Rise of Professionals and the Emergence of Occupational Licensing Regulation
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10467
PY  - 2004
Y2  - May 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10467
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10467.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Marc Law
Department of Economics
University of Vermont
94 University Place
Burlington, VT  05405-0114
E-Mail: Marc.Law@uvm.edu

Sukkoo Kim
Department of Economics
Washington University
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
Tel: 314/935-4961
Fax: 314/935-4156
E-Mail: soks@artsci.wustl.edu
AB  - This paper explores the origins and effects of occupational licensing regulation in late nineteenth and early twentieth century America. Was licensing regulation introduced to limit competition in the market for professional services at the expense of efficiency? Or was licensing adopted to reduce informational asymmetries about professional quality? To investigate these hypotheses, we analyze the determinants of licensing legislation and the effect of licensing on entry into eleven occupations. We also examine the impact of medical licensing laws on entry into the medical profession, physician earnings, mortality rates, and the incidence of medical malpractice. We believe that, at least for the Progressive Era, the evidence is more consistent with the asymmetric information hypothesis than the industry capture hypothesis.
ER  -