Payment method choice signals a firm’s relative appetite for secrecy over flexibility

Evidence

A small building contractor in Palermo confirmed that mafiosi offer nonmembers a choice of their method of payment, either in cash or through the purchase of materials, and said he preferred the former as it was less binding (I-3). But another, larger contractor said his firm opted for purchasing supplies at the prescribed stores because this left no trace of their transactions with mafiosi (I-1). — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 416

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasting preferences (traceability vs. binding-ness) is a neat empirical datum bearing on the reader’s commitment-mechanism analysis.
• SHARE: The detail that larger contractors paid in supplies specifically to leave no paper trace of mafia dealings is a niche observational nugget.