Occupational Licensure and the Utilization of Nursing Labor: An Economic Analysis

摘要

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of occupational licensure on the utilization of registered and practical nurses (RNs and PNs, respectively). Nursing labor is selected both because it is an occupation to which much discussion has been directed regarding allocation issues, and because this group satisfies a vital empirical criterion: the presence of a period (the year 1960) in which sufficient variation in the nature of licensure and available data exist. The analysis thus provides a case study from which general implications may be drawn concerning the restrictive effects of licensure on the utilization of potentially substitutable classes of health manpower.