We study the relationship between the enforceability of covenants not to compete (CNCs) and employee mobility and wages. We exploit a 2015 CNC ban for technology workers in Hawaii and find that this ban increased mobility by 11% and new-hire wages by 4%. We supplement the Hawaii evaluation with...

We examine the impact of enforcing non-compete covenants (CNC) on the formation and performance of new firms using matched employer-employee data on 30 US states. To identify the impact of CNC, we exploit the inter-state variation in CNC enforcement along with the fact that courts do not enforce...

Many of a firm’s most important informational or relational resources are at risk of diffusion to its competitors because they are embedded in the firm’s human capital. Using novel firm- and worker-level data, we present descriptive evidence on the adoption of and outcomes associated with...