This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, December 29th, 2016.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Could occupational licensing make it harder for ex-cons to reintegrate as productive members of society.

Steve Slavinsky is a senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Economic

Liberty at Arizona State University's Cary School of Business.

His research indicates that states that make it harder for

ex-cons to access occupations could spur those people back into crime.

For people who've studied this issue, the name Morris Kleiner will ring a bell, somebody who's

done a name Morris Kleiner will ring a bell, somebody who's done a lot of work on

occupational licensing and the manner in which occupational licensing

has really hampered the ability of people to just go out and do something,

typically owner-operator type jobs where people just say, hey, I have a skill and I'd like to apply my trade and occupational

licensing places all these demands on them, but you've done some research on a special category of people who don't even have that

opportunity which is in many cases not even to apply for these licenses so that

they can go out and apply their skills. The broad consensus about occupational licensing

is that it merely serves to keep out competitors

and new entrance into an occupation.

These vary by state.

Some have more stringent barriers to entry than others.

And this has been a long-term research program for a lot of folks in social sciences and in policy study.

However, very little attention has been given to certain types of barriers to entry that only apply to a specific class of people.

If you're in a state that maybe has a low barrier

...