The Efficiency of Occupational Licensing during the Gilded and Progressive Eras: Evidence from Judicial Review

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: Kanazawa, Mark Tooru
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050723000396
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 1221-1252
• 关键词: UNITED-STATES; workers-compensation; DUE-PROCESS; legislation; HISTORY; HEALTH; LABOR; LAWS; representatives; selection

摘要

This paper proposes a novel approach to assessing the efficiency and distributional consequences of occupational licensing statutes during the Gilded and Progressive eras, based on the practice of judicial review. At the time, state judges ruling on the constitutionality of police powers regulation operated under powerful legal norms that militated against redistribution and class legislation. Evidence presented in the paper strongly suggests that judges were significantly more likely to uphold, on constitutional grounds, occupational licensing legislation for occupations with important information asymmetries, suggesting that constitutional review promoted efficiency in occupational markets. These findings have implications for current policies regarding occupational licensing.