Seo-Young Cho|Axel Dreher|Eric Neumayer
Does Legalized Prostitution Increase Human Trafficking?
German Institute for Economic Research|Swiss Finance Institute|University of Göttingen|Heidelberg University|London School of Economics and Political Science
paper investigates impact legalized prostitution human trafficking inflows according economic theory two opposing effects unknown magnitude scale effect legalized prostitution leads expansion prostitution market increasing human trafficking substitution effect reduces demand trafficked women legal prostitutes favored trafficked ones empirical analysis crosssection 150 countries shows scale effect dominates substitution effect average countries prostitution legal experience larger reported human trafficking inflows