No-Poach Agreements

Axel Gottfries and Gregor Jarosch

No 35492, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study no-poach cartels using a wage-posting model that puts worker poaching at the center of labor market competition. Even when just two out of ten employers in a local labor market collude, wages fall by almost 5% market-wide. The reason is that no-poach agreements suppress competition along the job ladder, with spillovers to non-colluding firms. We then compare no-poach agreements to two other forms of anti-competitive conduct in the labor market: noncompete agreements and wage fixing. No-poach agreements have by far the largest negative wage effects.

JEL-codes: E0 J0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-07
Note: EFG LS
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