How Do Professional Licensing Regulations Affect Practitioners? New Evidence∗

I estimate the effect of professional licensing policy on training. The licensing regulations data come from a panel which contains rich variation in professional licensing policy for four diverse occupations. The individual-level data come from two supplements to the Current Population Survey. Licensing regulations seem to have little effect on vocational class enrollment. I find evidence that licensing requirements are positively related to whether respondents have acquired training since the current job began. I find scant evidence of a licensing wage premium. This suggests that the cumulative effect of licensing regulations on the supply of practitioners is small. ∗I am indebted to my advisors Joe Altonji, Björn Brügemann, and Fabian Lange for their guidance and support. I am thankful to Morris Kleiner for access to the licensing regulations data. I also thank Gharad Bryan, Rachel Heath, Rick Mansfield, Jamin Speer, and seminar participants at Yale University. All errors are my own. †Department of Economics, Yale University, Box 208264, New Haven, CT 06520-8264. Email : [email protected]