What's the Entry Barrier on the Supply Side?

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The key part about lawyers that we call occupational licensing is presumably for reasons of information quality. People can't really tell in advance whether they're going to get a lawyer that's competent, honest, reliable. Most states won't even let you sit for the bar unless you've gone to an ABA accredited law school. Not everyone gets into an ABA accrediting law school. So that's your sort of classic, you know, entry barrier on the supply side that restricting competition.

Clifford Winston of the Brookings Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the market for lawyers and the role of lawyers in the political process. Drawing on a new co-authored book, First Thing We Do, Let's Deregulate All the Lawyers, Winston argues that restrictions on the supply of lawyers and increases in demand via government regulation artificially boost lawyers' salaries. Deregulation of the supply (by eliminating licensing) would lower price and encourage innovation.