This paper presents the first systematic theoretical and empirical study of high-low agreements in civil litigation. A high-low agreement is a private contract that, if signed by litigants before the conclusion of a trial, constrains any plaintiff recovery to a specified range. Whereas existing...

This paper presents the first systematic theoretical and empirical study of high-low agreements in civil litigation. A high-low agreement is a private contract that, if signed by litigants before the conclusion of a trial, constrains any plaintiff recovery to a specified range. Whereas existing...

Employment contracts for most employees are not publicly available, leaving researchers to speculate on whether they contain post-employment restrictions on employee mobility, and if so, what those provisions look like. Using a large sample of publicly available CEO employment contracts, we are...

This study examines the effect of noncompete enforceability on training and wages. An increase from non-enforcement to mean enforceability is associated with a 14% increase in training, which tends to be firm-sponsored and designed to upgrade or teach new skills. In contrast to theoretical...

The use of machine learning (ML) for productivity in the knowledge economy requires considerations of important biases that may arise from ML predictions. We define a new source of bias related to incompleteness in real time inputs, which may result from strategic behavior by agents. We theorize...

This paper assesses the content, role, and adaptability of subjective beliefs about contract enforceability in the context of postemployment covenants not to compete (“noncompetes”). We show that employees of all stripes tend to believe that their noncompetes are enforceable, even when they...

We examine how non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) influence firm reputation and the flow of labor market information by analyzing three 'NDA-narrowing' state laws that prohibited firms from using NDAs to silence workers regarding unlawful workplace conduct. We document three main results. First,...

We examine how non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) influence firm reputation and the flow of labor market information by analyzing three 'NDA-narrowing' state laws that prohibited firms from using NDAs to silence workers regarding unlawful workplace conduct. We document three main results. First,...