Gated Academic Papers Are Inefficient

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Matt Yglesias notes that, compared to states where dental hygienists are required to work in a dentist’s office, dental hygienists earn about 10% more in states where they’re allowed to work independently. Likewise, dentists in those states earn less and have slower employment growth. The obvious conclusion is that in states where hygienists are required to work for dentists, dentists capture some of their earnings:

There’s been a lot of interest over the past ten years among progressives in the subject of the political origins of growing income inequality. But I find there’s been less interest in trying to explore specifically what those origins might be. It’s not all overregulation of dental hygenists (obviously) but it’s also not all Bush tax cuts and Commodity Futures Modernization Act either.

This is interesting stuff, but it lacks one thing: a time function. Occupational licensing like this might transfer income upward in some cases (though the hygienist example is sort of unique in the way it works), but it would only contribute to growing income inequality if this particular type of hygienist regulation has increased over the years. Unfortunately, the paper Matt cites would cost me $5 to read, so I’ll probably never know if it has.

UPDATE: Now I’ve read it! All your questions are answered here.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate