IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ucr/wpaper/201439.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

What are the long run effects of nurse occupational licensure?

Author

Listed:
  • Mindy Marks

    (Department of Economics, University of California Riverside)

  • Marc Law

Abstract

Most theories of occupational regulation posit that the effects of occupational licensure regulations—laws that require members of an occupation to possess a license in order to practice—increase with time. In this paper, we take advantage of a quasi-experiment afforded by the fact that different US states adopted mandatory licensing of registered and practical nurses at different times to estimate the effects of licensing on wages and participation, allowing for licensing laws that have been in place longer to have larger effects. We investigate these impacts on the profession as a whole, and on minority workers in particular, using individual-level data taken from four waves of the US decennial censuses. While we find some evidence that wages of nurses increased with the duration of licensing, there is no systematic evidence that participation declined. Additionally, for registered nurses, we find that minority wages rose faster than non-minority wages, and that the participation of minority workers increased with time relative to non-minorities following licensure. Taken as a whole, these findings are more consistent with the public interest theory than the capture theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Mindy Marks & Marc Law, 2014. "What are the long run effects of nurse occupational licensure?," Working Papers 201439, University of California at Riverside, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucr:wpaper:201439
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://economics.ucr.edu/repec/ucr/wpaper/201439.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2014
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Law, Marc T. & Kim, Sukkoo, 2005. "Specialization and Regulation: The Rise of Professionals and the Emergence of Occupational Licensing Regulation," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(3), pages 723-756, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alex Hollingsworth & Krzysztof Karbownik & Melissa A. Thomasson & Anthony Wray, 2024. "The Gift of a Lifetime: The Hospital, Modern Medicine, and Mortality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(7), pages 2201-2238, July.
    2. Sauro Mocetti & Giacomo Roma & Enrico Rubolino, 2022. "Knocking on Parents’ Doors: Regulation and Intergenerational Mobility," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(2), pages 525-554.
    3. David Skarbek, 2010. "Restricting Reconstruction: Occupational Licensing and Natural Disasters," Chapters, in: Emily Chamlee-Wright & Virgil Henry Storr (ed.), The Political Economy of Hurricane Katrina and Community Rebound, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Carolyn M. Moehling & Gregory T. Niemesh & Melissa A. Thomasson & Jaret Treber, 2020. "Medical education reforms and the origins of the rural physician shortage," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 14(2), pages 181-225, May.
    5. Morris M. Kleiner & Richard M. Todd, 2007. "Mortgage Broker Regulations That Matter: Analyzing Earnings, Employment, and Outcomes for Consumers," NBER Working Papers 13684, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Daniel J. Smith & Macy Scheck, 2023. "Examining the public interest rationale for regulating whiskey with the pure food and drugs act," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 196(1), pages 85-122, July.
    7. Alicia Plemmons, 2022. "Occupational licensing's effects on firm location and employment in the United States," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(4), pages 735-760, December.
    8. Lan Chen & Yufei Ji & Xichen Yao & Hengshu Zhu, 2024. "Occupation Life Cycle," Papers 2406.15373, arXiv.org.
    9. Daniel Carpenter, 2014. "Accounting for Financial Innovation and Borrower Confidence in Financial Rule Making: Analogies from Health Policy," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(S2), pages 331-349.
    10. Franck, Raphaël & Johnson, Noel D. & Nye, John V.C., 2014. "From internal taxes to national regulation: Evidence from a French wine tax reform at the turn of the twentieth century," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 77-93.
    11. Mario Pagliero, 2007. "The Impact of Potential Labor Supply on Licensing Exam Difficulty in the US Market for Lawyers," CHILD Working Papers wp19_08, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY.
    12. Marc T. Law & Mindy S. Marks, 2013. "From Certification To Licensure: Evidence From Registered And Practical Nurses In The United States, 1950-1970," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 10(2), pages 177-198, August.
    13. Brian Meehan & E. Frank Stephenson, 2020. "Reducing a Barrier to Entry: The 120/150 CPA Licensing Rule," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 382-402, December.
    14. Mocetti, Sauro & Rizzica, Lucia & Roma, Giacomo, 2021. "Regulated occupations in Italy: Extent and labour market effects," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    15. Marc T. Law & Mindy S. Marks, 2012. "Occupational Licensing and Minorities: A Reply to Klein, Powell, and Vorotnikov," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 9(3), pages 234-255, September.
    16. Marek Zapletal, 2019. "The Effects of Occupational Licensing: Evidence from Business‐Level Data," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 57(4), pages 894-918, December.
    17. Xia, Xing, 2021. "Barrier to Entry or Signal of Quality? The Effects of Occupational Licensing on Minority Dental Assistants," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    18. Tanya Wanchek, 2010. "Dental Hygiene Regulation and Access to Oral Healthcare: Assessing the Variation across the US States," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 48(4), pages 706-725, December.
    19. Evans, R. & Guinnane, T.W., 2006. "Reputational Externality and Self-Regulation," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0628, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    20. Daniel J. Smith & Noah J. Trudeau, 2019. "The Undertaker’s Cut: Challenging the Rational Basis for Casket Licensure," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 34(Summer 20), pages 23-41.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucr:wpaper:201439. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kelvin Mac (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deucrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.