Did Coal Miners “Owe Their Souls to the Company Store”? Theory and Evidence from the Early 1900s
研究了20世纪初美国煤矿公司是否利用垄断地位剥削工人，发现非工会地区公司商店价格受竞争限制，矿工通常不欠债，工资可能补偿高价，但条件随劳动力市场紧张程度变化。
Although coal companies may have tried to exploit a local-store monopoly, company-store prices in nonunion areas were appreciably limited by competition from other stores and mines in the same labor market. Company stores persisted in part by lowering transactions costs. Prices at company stores were generally similar to those at nearby independent stores, and higher wages may have compensated for higher store prices at isolated mines. Conditions varied, however, with labor-market tightness. Miners were generally not in debt to the store, nor paid entirely in scrip. Scrip was an advance on payday, when miners received cash.