Advertising restrictions in professional services

There are some 15 OECD countries where advertising professional services is completely or partially restricted. This paper provides economic arguments to support the view that such restrictions are welfare detrimental. In particular, we illustrate the theoretical arguments providing underpinning to the fact that advertising is not expected to decrease the quality of professional services. We also illustrate the empirical evidedence documenting that advertising professional services seems to favour entry and reduce concentration. There is a strong case, thus, to remove advertising restrictions.