Effects of Professional Licensing Arrangements on Interstate Labor Mobility and Resource Allocation

The licensing of various professions is generally accepted as necessary to protect the public from incompetent and dishonest practitioners. At the same time, however, licensing restricts freedom of entry and thereby provides a basis for occupational monopolies. This paper is concerned with a particular aspect of professional licensing–the effects of state licensing arrangements and practices in the professions fo medicine, dentistry, and law on interstate mobility and the allocation of professional labor resources. Barriers to mobility imposed by professional licensing are problems for the professions themselves, and are of wider interest owing to the current concern about shortages of professional people.

Arlene S. Holen

Journal of Political Economy

October 1965

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