Does trade secret protection spur human capital investment? Evidence from the Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of trade secret protection on corporate investment in human capital. By leveraging the staggered adoption of the Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine (IDD) by U.S. states as an exogenous shock that significantly reduces talent mobility, we find that IDD adoption results in firms overinvesting in human capital, suggesting that firms strategically engage in precautionary human capital hoarding in response to the reduced talent supply in the labor market and increased labor adjustment costs. Our cross-sectional analyses show that the effect of IDD adoption on human capital investment is more pronounced for (1) firms in high-skill industries and (2) firms facing higher levels of product market competition. Finally, further analyses reveal that, in the context of a limited talent supply under IDD restrictions, high-skill firms with human capital reserves enjoy superior performance to those without such reserves. Overall, our study reveals an unintended consequence of growing trade secret protection in shifting the focus of firms’ human capital investment from “head-hunting” talent from rivals to “internal cultivation” of existing human capital within firms and has implications for both managers and policymakers amid the increasingly knowledge-intensive economic environment.