SMITH BRAIN TRUST — The White House has announced it will confront an issue that might be producing inefficiencies in the labor market and suppressing workers' wages: The overuse — and abuse — of noncompete clauses, which prevent people from moving from one company to another in the same field.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — When you accepted your current job, did you sign a noncompete agreement? "Noncompetes" can lurk among all the routine forms you sign during the hiring process, but they can come back to bite you. Long common in fields such as engineering, and for executives, they are now being pushed on low-income workers, limiting their freedom in the labor market.

It's a trend that's decades in the making. Americans aren't changing jobs as much as they used to.

Maryland Smith’s Evan Starr has extensively studied noncompetes, with the same conclusion: the agreements hurt workers.

A new paper says management researchers should show more data and use a simple graphical tool.

New research explores the potential biases that limit the effectiveness of ML process technologies and the scope for human capital to be complementary in reducing such biases.

What happens when these contracts are enforceable and used en masse? New Maryland Smith research finds that negative consequences are in store for all workers.

What can Usain Bolt teach you about making a career transition? The eight-time Olympic gold medalist and world champion sprinter from Jamaica is making one now, on trial with an Australian A-League soccer team. Here are seven things you can learn from him.

Nobody likes to feel trapped. But employees benefit in some ways when two factors combine to pin them in place, making it harder for them to exit their organizations with valuable knowledge.

Firms worried about knowledge leakage should be careful what they wish for when they lobby lawmakers to boost enforceability of loyalty agreements.