Lowering the Bar to Raise the Bar: Licensing Difficulty and Attorney Quality in Japan | Zendy

J. Mark Ramseyer | Zendy; Eric Rasmusen | Zendy

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Lowering the Bar to Raise the Bar: Licensing Difficulty and Attorney Quality in Japan

Author(s) -

J. Mark Ramseyer,

Eric Rasmusen

Publication year - 2013

Publication title -

ssrn electronic journal

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

ISSN - 1556-5068

DOI - 10.2139/ssrn.2294617

Subject(s) - bar (unit) , quality (philosophy) , occupational licensing , test (biology) , relaxation (psychology) , business , marketing , industrial organization , economics , psychology , microeconomics , social psychology , paleontology , philosophy , physics , epistemology , meteorology , biology

Under certain circumstance, a relaxation in occupational licensing standards can increase the quality of those who enter the industry. The effect turns on the opportunity costs of preparing for the licensing examination: making the test easier can increase the quality of those passing if it lowers the opportunity costs enough to increase the number of those willing to go to the trouble of taking the test. We explore the theoretical circumstances under which this can occur and the actual effect of the relaxation of the difficulty of the bar exam in Japan from 1992 to 2011.

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