The Evolution of Human Capital Restrictions

Jessica Jeffers, Assistant Professor

This project will explore the evolution of non-compete and related litigation from 1980 to present day. Restrictions on human capital, including non-compete agreemetns, have drawn increased attention in recent years. Yet the profession lacks actual data on the enforcement of these provisions, which has made it difficult to understand how binding these restrictions truly are. Moreoever, the conversation to date has ignored the fact that non-competes can vary broadly in scope and use, from restricting trade secret dissemination to preventing client solicitation. These distinctions can shed light on the type of human capital and intellectual property that have been most critical for firms over time. Our goal is to create a panel dataset of litigation related to human capital restrictions, and use this to explore what factors predict the enforcement of human capital restrictions, and how these restrictions have evolved over time.