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...

Extant work in strategic management has focused on the role of various legal levers when managing human capital. Companies use such levers to improve employee retention and prevent leakage of knowledge to rivals. Specifically, noncompete agreements (NCAs), contracts that prevent employees from...

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,...

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...

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...

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,...