Economic Research and Federal Trade Commission’s Proposed Rule Banning Non-Compete Agreements.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on non-compete agreements. In effect, the proposed rule would ban all non-compete clauses in employment contracts. As a result, such a rule could have a substantial impact on how labor markets operate. The NPRM describes the existing literature on the effects of non-compete clauses, evaluates the research’s reliability, and estimates the costs and benefits of the proposed rule. We review the research discussed in the NPRM and other related research, providing comments and conclusions that can be derived from the research as a whole. In particular, we focus on whether the balance of the research supports the type of rule proposed by the FTC, a rule focused on low-income workers, or no rule at all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]