Restoring Vision to Consumers and Competition to the Marketplace: Analyzing the Effects of the 2004 FCLCA

Abstract

Occupational licensing laws can create monopoly power for professionals in the marketplace. In the case of vision services, optometrists have the authority to write prescriptions for contact lenses, and this can result in professionals excluding information to force patients to purchase lenses from the professional writing the prescription. In this paper, we estimate the effect of the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act (FCLCA) on the market for vision services. We find that requiring professionals to release prescription information to patients resulted in a 10-11% reduction in the wages of optometrists. We are unable to find evidence that the change affected the labor market for opticians.

Keywords: occupational licensing, FCLCA, eyewear

JEL Classification: J44