Did Chinese coolies on the Yangtze pay someone to whip them? (Academic urban legends)
Once upon a time, Chinese coolies pulling a barge up the Yangtze paid someone to whip them. So goes a widely repeated story attributed to Steven Cheung. This story is probably most exuberantly told by Michael Munger in an EconTalk podcast ("Munger on the Nature of the Firm", 2008 ): Michael Munger. There's a famous example in China, where a group of coolies ... have to pull a barge up the Yangtze River ... There's a trade-off ... how do you make the 30 guys work hard? The insight of the team production problem is we need ... division of labor. ... If I'm pulling, I can't spend my time watching you and you can't spend your time watching me. We'll create a new job, called the monitor. ... We'll give the monitor a whip. Now this looks like slavery. The great thing about this, and this is from an article by an economist named Steven NS Cheung. He found that this guy with a whip—and this is the most incredible thing Russ!—this guy with a whip was hir