Bo Cowgill

Cowgill will advance the research agenda on noncompete agreements—clauses that limit workers’ post-employment mobility. Building on a large-scale randomized field experiment conducted with two major employers, Cowgill finds that non-competes reduce mobility and earnings even when unenforceable and are often signed without being noticed—highlighting gaps between legal form and behavioral reality. He will extend theoretical and empirical work on attention and perceived enforceability, build infrastructure for tracking long-run labor outcomes, and test whether non-competes influence employer investment in worker training.