Prepared Testimony before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights

Chairman Lee, Ranking Member Klobuchar, and Members of the Subcommittee: thank you for the opportunity to appear here today to testify about occupational licensing. This is an important economic issue, and one which only in recent years has begun to receive commensurate attention from policymakers and analysts. When carefully designed, licensing can offer important health and safety protections to the public and other benefits to workers. But there is a fine line to tread: the ways that licensing policies are designed and implemented can also affect workers’ wages, employment opportunities, and ability to move across State lines, as well as consumers’ access to essential goods and services. In fact, occupational licensing sometimes functions as an unfair barrier to competition, preventing the benefits of our economic growth from reaching the widest range of households and workers.

Jason Furman

Senate Judiciary Committee

February 2, 2016

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