Every empirical approach to causal inference relies on untestable identifying assumptions. Yet, just 5% of recent empirical studies in top management journals test for sensitivity to the violation of these assumptions. To address this gap, we highlight recent methods that examine how sensitive...

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...

This paper examines how the enforceability of noncompete covenants affects the creation, growth, and survival of spinouts and other new entrants. The impact of noncompete enforceability on new firms is ambiguous, since noncompetes reduce knowledge leakage but impose hiring costs. However, we...

Using the USPTO patent database, this study empirically unpacks the black box of the firm age effects on innovation. We directly measure a potential mediating variable, the extent of firms’ reconfiguration of R&D portfolios (which we call firms’ own R&D proximity). We find that higher R&D...