Spin-outs: knowledge diffusion through employee mobility
研究员工流动如何促进知识扩散，员工通过模仿前雇主的技术诀窍创办新企业，模型均衡是帕累托最优，且与硬盘驱动行业数据一致。
In many industries, one important method of diffusion is through employee mobility: many of the entering firms are started by employees from incumbent firms using some of their former employer's technological know-how. This article explores the effect of incorporating this mechanism in a general industry framework by allowing employees to imitate their employers' know-how. The equilibrium is Pareto optimal because the employees “pay” for the possibility of learning their employers' know-how. The model's implications are consistent with data from the rigid disk drive industry. These implications concern the effects of know-how on firm formation and survival.