The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who Is Allowed to Work, and Why It Goes Wrong

A bottom-up investigation of the broken system of professional licensing, affecting everyone from hairdressers and morticians to doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, and those who rely on their services.

Millions of Americans are required to have a license to do their jobs, giving the boards responsible for licensure enormous power. In theory, licensing boards maintain standards of hygiene, skill, and ethics, but their decisions can be maddeningly arbitrary, creating unnecessary barriers to...