Job-Hopping in Silicon Valley: Some Evidence Concerning the Microfoundations of a High-Technology Cluster

Bruce Fallick, Charles Fleischman () and James Rebitzer

The Review of Economics and Statistics, 2006, vol. 88, issue 3, 472-481

Abstract: Observers of Silicon Valley's computer cluster report that employees move rapidly between competing firms, but evidence supporting this claim is scarce. Job-hopping is important in computer clusters because it facilitates the reallocation of talent and resources toward firms with superior innovations. Using new data on labor mobility, we find higher rates of job-hopping for college-educated men in Silicon Valley's computer industry than in computer clusters located out of the state. Mobility rates in other California computer clusters are similar to Silicon Valley's, suggesting some role for features of California law that make noncompete agreements unenforceable. Consistent with our model of innovation, mobility rates outside computer industries are no higher in California than elsewhere. Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Date: 2006
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Working Paper: Job-hopping in Silicon Valley: some evidence concerning the micro-foundations of a high technology cluster (2005)
Working Paper: Job-Hopping in Silicon Valley: Some Evidence Concerning the Micro-Foundations of a High Technology Cluster (2005)
Working Paper: Job-Hopping in Silicon Valley: Some Evidence Concerning the Micro-Foundations of a High Technology Cluster (2005)
Working Paper: Job Hopping in Silicon Valley: Some Evidence Concerning the Micro-Foundations of a High Technology Cluster (2005)
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