Recent research by Kevin Stange, which evaluates a multi-state compact that allows nurses to easily practice across state borders, is featured in The Wall Street Journal, the Brookings Institution’s Hutchins Roundup, and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth’s Equitablog.
In the NBER working paper, “Labor supply effects of occupational regulation: Evidence from the Nurse Licensure Compact.” Stange and co-author Christina DePasquale (Emory) evaluate the impact of a compact that has eliminated cross-state licensing barriers for nurses in 25 member states.
The researchers find that the compact--which began in 2000, adding additional states over the years--has had no statistically significant impact on “employment levels, hours worked, earnings, and likelihood of working across state lines.”
“[E]ven with the licensing hassle out of the way,” writes Anna Louie Sussman for The Wall Street Journal, “nurses weren’t moving to high-demand states, working across borders, putting in longer hours or commanding higher wages.”
To learn more, read:
- “Occupational licensing doesn’t seem to restrict nurses’ mobility,” by Anna Louie Sussman for The Wall Street Journal;
- “Hutchins Roundup: Occupational licensing, real exchange rates, and more,” by Anna Malinovskaya and David Wessel, for the Brookings Institution; and
- “U.S. labor market frictions and occupational licensing,” by Nick Bunker for the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.
Kevin Stange is an assistant professor of public policy. His research interests lie broadly in empirical labor and public economics, with a focus on higher education and health care. He is currently doing research on college choice and changes in the health care workforce.