Conti, RaffaeleLopes, Júlio Augusto Carreira Palmela Bolinhas2014-03-182014-03-182013-04-292012http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/13804The purpose of this thesis is to understand the relationship of trade secrecy and covenants not to compete. To accomplish this task a differences-in-differences analysis was conducted on a sample of 659,945 U.S. patents generated by U.S. public companies. Empirical findings highlight that the use of both trade secrecy and covenants not to compete has a positive impact on the expected value and variance of the invention value distribution.engmaster thesis201090597