Remote Work Disrupts State Occupational Licensing: The $1.6 Trillion Regulatory Federalism Challenge

States regulate professional services using occupational licensing regimes instituted pre-1900 when services were completely internal commerce of states. Now, services flow digitally across state lines along national internet infrastructure, raising new Constitutional questions of state versus federal regulatory jurisdiction. Using state administrative data and occupational digitizability indicators, we estimate that a mean across the fifty states of 35 percent of state-occupationally-licensed workers can remotely deliver their services with value totaling $1.6 trillion in 2024. This threatens state policy-maker jurisdiction over occupational regulation and spotlights the digital era federalism conflict between state sovereignty and national regulatory coherence in an increasingly de-spatialized economy.

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Publication Details

Journal
State and Local Government Review
Published
2025-12-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/0160323x251394661
Primary Topic
Occupational and Professional Licensing Regulation
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Remote Work Disrupts State Occupational Licensing: The $1.6 Trillion Regulatory Federalism Challenge

Aditya Sai Phutane, Adrienne Edisis
State and Local Government Review
Occupational and Professional Licensing Regulation
article

Remote Work Disrupts State Occupational Licensing: The $1.6 Trillion Regulatory Federalism Challenge

Aditya Sai Phutane, Adrienne Edisis
article en

Abstract

States regulate professional services using occupational licensing regimes instituted pre-1900 when services were completely internal commerce of states. Now, services flow digitally across state lines along national internet infrastructure, raising new Constitutional questions of state versus federal regulatory jurisdiction. Using state administrative data and occupational digitizability indicators, we estimate that a mean across the fifty states of 35 percent of state-occupationally-licensed workers can remotely deliver their services with value totaling $1.6 trillion in 2024. This threatens state policy-maker jurisdiction over occupational regulation and spotlights the digital era federalism conflict between state sovereignty and national regulatory coherence in an increasingly de-spatialized economy.

State and Local Government Review
Virginia Tech (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 55%
Occupational and Professional Licensing Regulation
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