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Good Intentions and Unintended Evil? Clients’ Punishment in the Market for Sex Services with Voluntary and Involuntary Providers

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  • Sonnabend, Hendrik

Abstract

While there is no consensus concerning the legal and moral judgment towards prostitution, there is an overwhelming agreement on the need to fight sexual slavery. The paper shows the effect of clients’ punishment in the market for commercial sex (the so called neo-abolitionism or nordic prostitution regime) as it concerns sexual slavery. As a result the theoretical analysis reveals that this effect is ambiguous and crucially depends on the size of the deterrence effect and on local properties of the market demand. Policy implications that arise are identified and discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Sonnabend, Hendrik, 2015. "Good Intentions and Unintended Evil? Clients’ Punishment in the Market for Sex Services with Voluntary and Involuntary Providers," EconStor Preprints 110682, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:esprep:110682
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Prostitution; Regulation; Forced Labor; Sexual Slavery;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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