Southern Agrarian Labor Contracts as Impediments to Cotton Mechanization
重新审视南方农业制度阻碍棉花机械化的传统观点，通过分析年度劳动合同的激励结构，解释其如何延迟机械采摘机的发明，支持了传统看法。
The traditional view of cotton mechanization, first advanced by rural sociologists in the 1920s, is that southern agrarian institutions impeded progress. Recently their view has been questioned. New studies attribute much of the southern lag to factors like small-scale production, cheap labor, the cotton crop, and environment. I contribute to the debate by emphasizing how the structure of the southern economy encouraged landlords to use annual labor contracts that hindered attempts to mechanize. I present evidence that supports the traditional view and suggest how the incentive structure of annual labor contracts delayed invention of the mechanical cotton picker.