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Trade Secrets and Innovation: Evidence from the “Inevitable Disclosure†Doctrine

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  • Barankay, Iwan
  • Contigiani, Andrea
  • Hsu, David

Abstract

Does heightened employer-friendly trade secrecy protection help or hinder innovation? By examining U.S. state-level legal adoption of a doctrine allowing employers to curtail inventor mobility if the employee would “inevitably disclose†trade secrets, we investigate the impact of a shifting trade secrecy regime on individual-level patenting outcomes. Using a difference-in-differences design taking un-affected U.S. inventors as the comparison group, we find strengthening employer-friendly trade secrecy adversely affects innovation. We then investigate why. We do not find empirical support for diminished idea recombination from suppressed inventor mobility as the operative mechanism. While shifting intellectual property protection away from patenting into trade secrecy has some explanatory power, our results are consistent with reduced individual-level incentives to signaling quality to the external labor market.

Suggested Citation

  • Barankay, Iwan & Contigiani, Andrea & Hsu, David, 2018. "Trade Secrets and Innovation: Evidence from the “Inevitable Disclosure†Doctrine," CEPR Discussion Papers 13077, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13077
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    Cited by:

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    3. Luigi Alberto Franzoni, 2020. "Trade secrets law," Working Papers wp1150, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    4. Callen, Jeffrey L. & Fang, Xiaohua & Zhang, Wenjun, 2020. "Protection of proprietary information and financial reporting opacity: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. Katrin Hussinger & Wunnam Basit Issah, 2022. "Trade Secret Protection and R&D Investment of Family Firms," DEM Discussion Paper Series 22-11, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    6. Dan Hu & Eunju Lee & Bingxin Li, 2023. "Trade secrets protection and stock price crash risk," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 58(2), pages 395-421, May.
    7. Dey, Aiyesha & White, Joshua T., 2021. "Labor mobility and antitakeover provisions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2).
    8. Evan Starr, 2019. "Consider This: Training, Wages, and the Enforceability of Covenants Not to Compete," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(4), pages 783-817, August.
    9. Bernhard Ganglmair & Imke Reimers, 2019. "Visibility of Technology and Cumulative Innovation: Evidence from Trade Secrets Laws," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2019_119v1, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    10. Hussingera, Katrin & Issahd, Wunnam, 2022. "Trade secret protection and R&D investment of family firms," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-039, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
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    12. Martin Ganco & Cameron D. Miller & Puay Khoon Toh, 2020. "From litigation to innovation: Firms' ability to litigate and technological diversification through human capital," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(13), pages 2436-2473, December.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Innovation; Trade secrets; Knowledge workers; Labor markets; Inter-firm mobility; Signalling;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital

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