Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
工人异质性与竞业限制对企业绩效的影响
Worker Heterogeneity and the Effect of Noncompetes on Firm Performance
摘要
Using staggered state‐level changes in noncompete enforceability, we document that reduced enforcement increases profitability, valuation, productivity, and plant‐level growth in knowledge‐worker‐intensive firms relative to other firms. Critically, these gains are concentrated among the most productive knowledge‐worker firms, consistent with an assortative matching mechanism in which top firms attract the most productive workers when noncompetes no longer bind. Using inventor‐level data, we find direct evidence of this sorting: more productive inventors migrate toward more productive firms following reductions in enforceability. Consequently, performance dispersion widens across knowledge‐worker‐intensive industries, as the most productive firms pull further ahead of their less productive peers.
中文摘要
利用各州对竞业限制可执行性的交错调整，我们研究发现：相较于其他企业，降低竞业限制执行力度会提升知识密集型企业的盈利能力、估值、生产率及工厂层面的增长。关键的是，这些收益集中在最具生产力的知识密集型企业中，这与"分类匹配机制"的推论一致——当竞业限制不再具有约束力时，顶尖企业能够吸引最具生产力的劳动者。基于发明者层面的数据，我们发现了这种分类效应的直接证据：在竞业限制执行力度降低后，更具生产力的发明者会向更具生产力的企业迁移。由此，知识密集型行业内的绩效差距持续扩大，最具生产力的企业进一步拉开与低效同行的差距。