Israel’s open-secret trade

Trade secret laws , labor mobility , and innovations ∗

We show that when the researcher’s (observable but not contractible) contribution to innovation is crucial, a covenant not to compete (CNC) reduces effort and profits under both spot and relational contracts. Having no CNC allows the researcher to leave for a rival. This alleviates a commitment problem by forcing the firm to reward a successful researcher. However, if the firm’s R&D investment ...

Corruption: medicine's dirty open secret.

Healthcare is a high risk sector for corruption. Best estimates are that between 10% and 25% of global spend on public procurement of health is lost through corruption. This is big bucks. Total global spend on healthcare is more than $7 trillion each year. Corruption takes many forms, depending on the country’s level of development and health financing system. The United States, for example, lo...

P hacking in biology: An open secret.

Progress in microbial ecology over the last few decades has resulted in a new generation of global change models that contemplate microbial feedbacks and offer predictions of an unparalleled accuracy (1). The microbial components of these models are getting increasingly more realistic. In PNAS, Crowther et al. (2) examine how microbes might respond to long-term warming and N fertilization under...

Secret-Public Storage Trade-Off for Broadcast Encryption Key Management

Preserving Your Revenue-management System as a Trade Secret

Make sure that your revenue-management system is safe from trade-secret piracy.