Articles

We present new data on regulatory restrictions across states and occupations between 2017 and 2022 to study the labor market effects of occupational licensing.

In this column, Rivera Schatz explains how Laws 96-2025 and 102-2025 reduce bureaucracy to retain and attract talent to Puerto Rico.

Since the birth of socialism in Spain in 1879, and its bastard child, communism in 1921, their goal has been the destruction of Spain and to achieve it they would not hesitate to use the Spanish people to destroy it.

Most economic research has documented a rise in income inequality over the past several decades, with divergent labor earnings being a key driver. Several explanations have been proposed, including changes in the relative demand for skills, the weakening of unions, reductions in the real value of the minimum wage, changes in progressive taxation, and alternative employment arrangements such as performance-based pay and independent contracting.

I begin this column with a painful illusion: if only the Government of Puerto Rico truly cared about the well-being of its people.

SB6 in Puerto Rico awaits Jenniffer González-Colón’s signature. The bill would implement a weak form of universal recognition on the island, requiring licensing boards to recognize licenses from US states that are deemed to be “substantially similar.” See my previous post on universal recognition for additional information.

We examine how the limited portability of occupational licenses across states affects interstate migrants' labor market outcomes. To address selection into migration, we focus on female workers with family ties.

Milei won the presidency in November last year and prompted concern from some in the West that he would lead his country down a road to ruin with libertarian policies that would make an already troubled economy even weaker. Voters wanted economic relief from a market hit with some of the highest inflation in the world.

Governor Jenniffer González Colón has the opportunity to sign into law a licensing reciprocity bill—almost identical to ones adopted by at least 26 states over roughly the past decade—that would allow anyone with a license in the continental US to apply for the same occupational license if they move to the island. That would allow them to skip duplicative training and avoid retaking the same exams they’ve already passed. This bill applies to over 130 occupations, covering the gamut from physicians and nurses to electricians and cosmetologists.

More than 20% of U.S. workers need a government-approved occupational license to do their job. Obtaining a license often requires hundreds of hours of classes and hundreds of dollars in fees. And until recently, a license earned in one state was rarely recognized in another, meaning workers had to go through the entire process again if they moved across state lines.