License to Profit: An Analysis of Entry Regulations in the Legal and Real Estate Professions

Abstract

The goal of this work is, first, to choose two professions, one where a professional's, mistake could cause significant and irreversible damages, and another where that is not entirely the case. The second step is to study the development of entry regulations in each of these professions. The final step is to investigate whether these regulations are justifiable, and whether the ultimate beneficiary of those is the professional himself, or the customer. The legal profession was chosen for its impact on society. Lawyers' mistakes may cause damages that have high cost in monetary terms and irreversible impacts in terms of broken lives. The real estate profession was selected because mistakes of these professionals are not as immaterial as is the case with florists, fortune tellers and barbers, yet at the same time not as costly or irreversible as it is the case with lawyers.

Keywords: occupational licensure, licensing, legal profession, real estate profession

JEL Classification: D18, I18, J44