Authors
Abstract
We assess the early impacts of Minnesota’s 2023 non-compete enforcement ban on earnings and mobility outcomes. We use a variety of methodologies to study this ban covering all new non-compete contracts in the state, including synthetic differences-in-differences, synthetic control, and a triple-difference methodology based on the industry prevalence of non-competes. Across methods, we are unable to detect labor market impacts either for new hires or for workers overall. Our null results could be due to studying the policy too soon before labor market changes have taken place, imperfections in our methodologies, small effects not discernible with our current methods, or a true non-effect of the non-compete policy. Analysis of job postings data, though very noisy, shows limited change in employer use of non-competes.