On the inefficiency of non-competes in low-wage labour markets

IF 1.6 3区 经济学 Q2 ECONOMICS Economica Pub Date : 2024-02-07 DOI:10.1111/ecca.12514
Tristan Potter, Bart Hobijn, André Kurmann
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Abstract

We study the efficiency of non-compete agreements (NCAs) in an equilibrium model of labour turnover. The model is consistent with empirical studies showing that NCAs reduce turnover and average wages for low-wage workers. The model also predicts that, by reducing turnover, NCAs raise recruitment and employment. We show that optimal NCA policy: (i) is characterized by a Hosios-like condition that balances the benefits of higher employment against the costs of inefficient congestion and poaching; (ii) depends critically on the minimum wage; and (iii) alone cannot always achieve the constrained-efficient allocation—a result that also holds for optimal minimum wage policy—yet with both policies, efficiency is always attainable. To guide policymakers, we derive a sufficient statistic in the form of an easily computed employment threshold above which NCAs are necessarily inefficiently restrictive, and show that employment levels in current low-wage US labour markets typically exceed this threshold. Finally, we calibrate the model and show that Oregon's 2008 NCA ban for low-wage workers increased welfare modestly (by roughly 0.1%), and that if policymakers had also raised the minimum wage to its optimal level conditional on the enacted NCA ban (a 30% increase), then welfare would have increased more substantially—by over 1%.

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论低工资劳动力市场中竞业禁止的低效率
我们在一个劳动力流动的均衡模型中研究了竞业禁止协议(NCA)的效率。该模型与实证研究一致,实证研究表明,竞业禁止协议降低了低工资工人的流动率和平均工资。该模型还预测,通过降低流动率,NCA 可以提高招聘和就业率。我们的研究表明,最优的非竞争性就业政策:(i) 具有类似于霍西奥斯条件的特点,可以在提高就业率的好处与低效率的拥堵和偷猎成本之间取得平衡;(ii) 关键取决于最低工资;(iii) 单靠非竞争性就业政策并不总能实现有约束的有效分配--这一结果同样适用于最优的最低工资政策--但在这两种政策的作用下,效率总是可以实现的。为了给政策制定者提供指导,我们以一个易于计算的就业阈值的形式推导出一个充分统计量,在该阈值之上,NCA必然是低效限制性的,并表明当前美国低工资劳动力市场的就业水平通常超过该阈值。最后,我们对模型进行了校准,结果表明俄勒冈州 2008 年针对低工资工人的 NCA 禁令仅适度增加了福利(约 0.1%),而如果政策制定者在颁布 NCA 禁令的条件下将最低工资提高到最佳水平(提高 30%),那么福利会有更大幅度的增加--超过 1%。
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来源期刊
Economica
Economica ECONOMICS-
CiteScore
2.40
自引率
0.00%
发文量
49
审稿时长
5 weeks
期刊介绍: Economica is an international journal devoted to research in all branches of economics. Theoretical and empirical articles are welcome from all parts of the international research community. Economica is a leading economics journal, appearing high in the published citation rankings. In addition to the main papers which make up each issue, there is an extensive review section, covering a wide range of recently published titles at all levels.
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