When do American CEOs have covenants not to compete (CNCs) in their employment contracts? To answer this question, we collected a random sample of nearly 1000 CEO employment contracts for 500 companies randomly selected from the S&P 1500 for the time period 1996 to 2010. Our main findings are...

"In the increasingly knowledge- and innovation-based economy in which the mobility of the workforce is vital, employees and ex-employees are considered to be one of the biggest threats to the existence of trade secrets. The interests of the former parties to the employment relationship are...

Non-compete agreements (also known as Covenants Not to Compete or CNCs) are frequently used by many businesses in an attempt to maintain their competitive advantage by safeguarding their human capital and the associated business secrets. Although the choice of whether to include CNCs in...

Worker mobility across firms can enhance innovation by spreading knowledge, but such mobility may also hinder innovation by making firms reluctant to invest in R&D. A common way that firms limit workers' mobility is with noncompete agreements (NCAs). We examine how the legal enforceability of...