مقررات قانونی بردگی استعمار : رویکرد قرارداد ناقص

Statutory laws in colonial America required that servants be given a particular set of goods upon contract completion. These laws were innovative and unprecedented. Their purpose has been interpreted as an effort to discourage servants from premature departure and to prevent ex-servants from taxing poor relief funds. These interpretations are shown to be inadequate, and an alternative explanation based on incomplete-contract theory is presented. Testable implications are developed regarding differences in end-of-contract payments by contract length, by the presence of money wages, and among indentured, convict, and apprentice contracts. The results support the incomplete-contract explanation.