It sounds crazy, but giving your professional rival control over your licensing board can actually end up getting you a raise.
SSRN · March 13, 2026 · 6277638
Why it matters
While we expect rivals to use regulation to crush their competition, this study of the eye-care industry shows that when optometrists control the boards of opticians, it leads to higher wages for the opticians. It suggests that regulators focus more on restricting who can enter the field than on suppressing the wages of those already in it.
From the abstract
In this study, the author is trying to analyze the labor market influence of occupational licensing on two occupations in the eye care industry: opticians and optometrists. Opticians and Optometrists are often considered as lower-level and higher-level eye-care occupations, in that they are complements to and substitutes for one another in providing eye-care services. With occupational licensing requirements in place for both occupations, the statutes and regulations determine who can do what ta