26. Is Professional Licensing a Racket?

Licensing began with medicine and law; now it extends to 20 percent of the U.S. workforce, including hair stylists and auctioneers. In a new book, the legal scholar Rebecca Allensworth calls licensing boards “a thicket of self-dealing and ineptitude” and says they keep bad workers in their jobs and good ones out — while failing to protect the public. SOURCES:Rebecca Allensworth, professor of law at Vanderbilt University. RESOURCES:"The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who Is Allowed to Work, and Why It Goes Wrong" by Rebecca Allensworth (2025)."Licensed to Pill," by Rebecca Allensworth (The New York Review of Books, 2020)."Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality or Restricting Competition?" by Morris Kleiner (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2006)."How Much of Barrier to Entry is Occupational Licensing?" by Peter Blair and Bobby Chung (British Journal of Industrial Relations, 2019). EXTRAS:"Is Ozempic as Magical as It Sounds?" by Freakonomics Radio (2024). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.