SUPPORTED BY UNIGESTION “ The Impact of Restricting Labor Mobility on Corporate Investment and Entrepreneurship ” Prof

I investigate the impact of restricting labor mobility on two components of growth: entrepreneurship and capital investment. To identify the mechanism, I combine LinkedIn's database of employment histories with staggered changes in the enforceability of non-compete agreements that come mostly from state Supreme Court rulings. Stronger enforceability leads to a substantial decline in employee departures, especially in knowledge-intensive occupations, and reduces entrepreneurship in corresponding sectors. However, these shocks increase the investment rate at existing knowledge-intensive firms. The estimates in my sample suggest that, in such sectors, there is roughly $1.5 million of additional capital investment from publicly held firms for every lost new firm entry. Friday, November 10, 2017, 14:00-15:30 Room 118, Extranef building at the University of Lausanne The Impact of Restricting Labor Mobility on Corporate Investment and Entrepreneurship Jessica S. Jeffers∗