Cho, Seo-Young, et al. “Does Legalized Prostitution Increase Human Trafficking?” World Development, vol. 41, 2013, pp. 67–82.,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2012.05.023.
As a senior researcher for quantitative cultural policy studies and empirical economist that focuses on migration, gender, culture, and institutions, Seo-Young Cho’s article analyzes the correlation between legalized prostitution and human trafficking inflows. Seo-Young Cho, as a woman with a doctorate in economics, has created a “3P Anti-Trafficking Policy Index” to evaluate governmental anti-sex trafficking efforts for each country and each year. In her article she discusses two theories: the scale effect, where legalized prostitution causes an increase in human trafficking, and the substitution effect, which reduces trafficking since legal sex workers would be in higher demand than illegal trafficked ones. Since research isn’t well-developed enough and data collection on human trafficking remains inadequate, cogent causal inference has yet to be an easy feat, so the two effects based on economic theory are used instead. The study’s quantitative empirical evidence leads us to believe that legalized sex work increases human trafficking, but Cho also points out how the furtivity of both the sex work and trafficking industries needs to be accounted for. This article utilizes cross-section data, robustness tests, and case studies and is constructive considering the research and data collection on such a taboo and polarizing subject falls short. The results won’t be used as fact, but they can help develop the idea that simply legalizing sex work isn’t enough when it can and has shown, in Germany, for instance, a rise in trafficking as a result.
- “Our quantitative empirical analysis for a cross-section of up to 150 countries shows that the scale effect dominates the substitution effect…[however] the problem here lies in the clandestine nature of both the prostitution and trafficking markets”
- “On average, countries with legalized prostitution experience a larger degree of reported human trafficking inflows. We have corroborated this quantitative evidence with three brief case studies of Sweden, Denmark, and Germany.”
