Acquihiring for Monopsony Power

Heski Bar-Isaac, Justin Johnson and Volker Nocke

No 18573, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: It is often argued that startups are acquired for the sole purpose of hiring specialized talent. We show that the goal of such acquihires might be to shut down the most relevant labor market competitor. This grants the acquirer monopsony power over specialized talent. As a consequence, acquihiring may harm employees and be socially inefficient. We explore the robustness of these effects, allowing for private benefits associated with working at a startup, varying bargaining protocols, multiple employees with and without complementarities, and private information.

JEL-codes: J42 L13 M12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-11
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18573 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: Acquihiring for Monopsony Power (2024)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:18573

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18573

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().