Abolish Occupational Licensing (Part 4)

EMTs hold lives in their hands, yet 73 other occupations have greater average licensure burdens: barbers and cosmetologists, home entertainment installers, interior designers, log scalers, manicurists and numerous contractor designations … while the average cosmetologist must complete 386 days of training, the average EMT must complete a mere 34. Even the average tree trimmer must complete more than 16 times the amount of education and experience.
Source: The Atlantic, License To Work

The Institute for Justice conducted a geographic regression discontinuity study that compared inspection outcomes for barbershop and salons within a 25 mile distance from each other but on different sides of state borders, and thus operating under different licensing requirements, found no evidence licensing or more stringent licensing requirements made a difference in health inspection outcomes.

A comparison of inspection outcomes for nail salons in Connecticut and New York near the border of the two states in 2017 and 2018 (n = 2,148), at which time Connecticut did not license manicurists, found that most health inspections resulted in zero violations for both states. In Connecticut, salons near the border passed 98% of standard health inspections while salons in New York near the border with Connecticut passed 95% of standard health inspections.

A second regression discontinuity analysis of health inspection outcomes for nail salons in Connecticut and New York comparing the violation Z-score (standard deviation) and rate indicated that New York salons had slightly more health code violations than Connecticut salons during the observation period even after adjusting for income, education, and population.

A comparison of inspection outcomes for barbershops in Alabama and Mississippi near the border of the two states between 2014 and 2018 (n = 3,218), at which time Mississippi required 50% more hours to complete schooling for a license, found that nearly all barber shops passed inspection. In Alabama, barber shops near the stateline passed 98% of inspections while barber shops near the state line in Mississippi passed 98% of inspections.

A second regression discontinuity analysis of health inspection outcomes for barber shops in Alabama and Mississippi found that health inspections at barber shops in Mississippi were 8% less likely to result in a passing grade than health inspections at Alabama barber shops even after adjusting for income, education, and population.