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Olsen, Reed Neil --- "Regulation of Medical Professions" [2012] ELECD 448; in Van den Bergh, J. Roger; Pacces, M. Alessio (eds), "Regulation and Economics" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Regulation and Economics

Editor(s): Van den Bergh, J. Roger; Pacces, M. Alessio

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847203434

Section: Chapter 16

Section Title: Regulation of Medical Professions

Author(s): Olsen, Reed Neil

Number of pages: 37

Extract:

16 Regulation of medical professions
Reed Neil Olsen



1. INTRODUCTION

This chapter on the regulation of medical professions discusses only two of the
major areas where researchers have investigated, theoretically and empirically,
the impact of regulation of the medical professions, the licensing of medical
professions and medical malpractice law. Although not addressed in this chapter,
a wide and diverse literature on other aspects of the regulation of medical profes-
sions certainly exists (e.g., the impact of capital constraint, or Certificate of Need,
regulation, see Joskow, 1981; for a general overview of the wider literature see
Feldstein, 1988 and Phelps, 1992). Although the law and economics literature has
made major contributions to both of these two topics, there exists very little over-
lap between the two areas in either theoretical or empirical studies.
The literature on professional licensing relies upon a wider literature,
explaining the existence of regulation in general, for its theoretical base. From
this literature, three explanations for professional licensure emerge: (1) the
capture theory, which assumes that professionals "capture" regulation and use
it to deter entry and increase their incomes, (2) the public interest theory,
which assumes that professional licensure is used in the public interest in order
to insure the quality of professional services and (3) the political economy
theory, which assumes that both professional interests and public interests may
simultaneously have an impact upon the existence and nature of licensing for
health care professionals.
The remainder of the professional licensing literature is focused on
attempts ...