The question is: What do workers BELIEVE about their noncompetes and their enforceability in court?
It's all about the CHILLING EFFECT.
(But is this just resentment after realizing they were tricked? Or would they really leave?)
(Personally I'd also consider some legal penalties for companies that knowingly write contracts with un-enforceable non-compete provisions.)
ideas.repec.org/p/jmp/jm2018/p…
In other words, market power in labor markets is real and substantial (which is probably why minimum wages don't reduce employment much, or at all).
But has it been increasing over time?
Can it explain why wages have been stagnating as profits increase?
Lipsius says: NO.
In other words, compared to previous decades, more Americans now work in labor markets that have more employers.
In other words we need some other theory to explain the falling labor share.
So we still need to worry about concentration a lot more than we have been.
(Nunn is right.)
(end)