World Development
Volume 41, Issue 1, 2013, Pages 67-82

Does Legalized Prostitution Increase Human Trafficking? (Article)

Cho S.-Y.* , Dreher A. , Neumayer E.
  • a German Institute for Economic Research-DIW Berlin, Germany
  • b Heidelberg University, Germany, University of Goettingen, Germany, CESifo, Germany, IZA, Germany, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, Switzerland
  • c London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of legalized prostitution on human trafficking inflows. According to economic theory, there are two opposing effects of unknown magnitude. The scale effect of legalized prostitution leads to an expansion of the prostitution market, increasing human trafficking, while the substitution effect reduces demand for trafficked women as legal prostitutes are favored over trafficked ones. Our empirical analysis for a cross-section of up to 150 countries shows that the scale effect dominates the substitution effect. On average, countries where prostitution is legal experience larger reported human trafficking inflows. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Author Keywords

Substitution effect global Crime Scale effect Prostitution Human trafficking

Index Keywords

empirical analysis prostitution scale effect economic theory trafficking womens status
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84870290100&doi=10.1016%2fj.worlddev.2012.05.023&partnerID=40&md5=d3bcc42d5664d2ad2ea8292db81347de
DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2012.05.023
ISSN: 0305750X
Cited by: 74
Original Language: English