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.

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26. Is Professional Licensing a Racket? is an episode from The Freakonomics Radio Book Club by Freakonomics Radio & Stitcher.

This episode is 00:55:15 long.

This episode was published on Feb 7, 2025.

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