Occupational Licensing and Education

Publisher Summary This chapter explains occupational licensing and education. Occupational licensing is an instrument of public policy by which the state constrains entry into the licensed occupations. Licensing statutes generally define the activities in which only licensed persons may engage and persons who are not licensed may not legally engage in those activities, so that licensed persons exercise a monopoly. Given the strength of the constraints on entry imposed by licensing requirements with respect to schooling, experience, and examination, the monopoly effects of a licensing statute will be powerful or weak, depending upon the breadth or narrowness of the definition of the licensed activities. Occupational licensing statutes are enacted by the public authorities of countries, provinces, and states and they have effect only within the boundaries of the enacting authorities. To practice a licensed profession within the boundaries of a given jurisdiction, it is necessary to have a license issued in that jurisdiction, unless the licensing authorities are willing to accept the license granted in another and different jurisdiction as constituting legal warrant for the practice of the profession. There is variance among licensed occupations with respect to the quality of reciprocity among jurisdictions in permitting professional practice.