Covenants not to compete are often included in employment agreements between firms and employees, justified by each party's voluntary “freedom to contract.” However, noncompetes may also generate externalities for all individuals in the market, including those who have not signed such...

This paper investigates the interaction effects of specialization and relational capital on performance. We distinguish between upstream and downstream relational capital, and theorize that higher levels of specialization will buffer against decreases in upstream relational capital, because of...