Trade Secrets and Innovation: Evidence from the “Inevitable Disclosure” Doctrine

Published Research

Does heightened employer‐friendly trade secrecy protection help or hinder innovation? By examining U.S. state‐level legal adoption of a doctrine allowing employers to curtail inventor mobility if the employee would “inevitably disclose” trade secrets, we investigate the impact of a shifting trade secrecy regime on individual‐level patenting outcomes. Read More

How to Design Incentives that Make Change Stick

A headshot of a person wearing glasses, looking intently ahead with a slight expression of concentration or thoughtfulness. The background is blurred.

It’s one of the paradoxes of being human: even when we know what’s good for us, we often make choices that are less than optimal. Wharton Professor Iwan Barankay researches how incentives can be used to create positive behavioral changes even after the incentive goes away.Read More

A randomized control trial in oral health on varying financial incentives and frequency of performance feedback for dental self-care

Funded Research Proposal

The burden of oral disease in the U.S. is high, and in need of novel approaches to improving preventive oral health behaviors. Almost half of U.S. adults have periodontal disease, while 92% of adults and 50% of children experience dental caries. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) put new emphasis on financial incentives in which financial rewards for patients and providers are linked to health decisions and outcomes.Read More

Team Incentives: Evidence from a Firm Level Experiment

Published Research

Many organizations rely on teamwork, and yet field evidence on the impacts of team-based incentives remains scarce. Compared to individual incentives, team incentives can affect productivity by changing both workers’ effort and team composition. We present evidence from a field experiment designed to evaluate the impact of rank incentives and tournaments on the productivity and composition of teams.Read More