TY - JOUR T1 - Locked In? The Enforceability of Covenants Not to Compete and the Careers of High-Tech Workers JF - Journal of Human Resources JO - J Hum Resour DO - 10.3368/jhr.monopsony.1218-9931R1 SP - 1218-9931R1 AU - Natarajan Balasubramanian AU - Jin Woo Chang AU - Mariko Sakakibara AU - Jagadeesh Sivadasan AU - Evan Starr Y1 - 2020/05/12 UR - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2020/05/04/jhr.monopsony.1218-9931R1.abstract N2 - 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 a cross-state analysis using matched employer-employee data. We find that eight years after starting a job in an average-enforceability state, technology workers have about 8% fewer jobs and 4.6% lower cumulative earnings relative to equivalent workers starting in a non-enforcing state. These results are consistent with CNC enforceability increasing monopsony power. ER -