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Men in Transit and Prostitution: Using Political Conventions as a Natural Experiment

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  • Cunningham Scott

    (Baylor University)

  • Kendall Todd D

    (Compass Lexecon)

Abstract

Approximately 100,000 visitors came to Denver, Colorado and Minneapolis, Minnesota to attend the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Economic theory suggests that men in transit can shift demand for commercial sex work. We estimate the responsiveness of labor supply to these two conventions, focusing on a previously neglected but increasingly important segment of the prostitution market: indoor sex workers who advertise on the Internet. Using a differences-in-differences estimator of prostitution advertisements posted on a major classified ads website, we find that the conventions caused a 29-44 percent increase in advertisements in Minneapolis and a 47-77 percent increase in Denver. Given the key role prostitution plays in the transmission of STIs, these results imply that focusing public health resources on men in transit may be beneficial.

Suggested Citation

  • Cunningham Scott & Kendall Todd D, 2011. "Men in Transit and Prostitution: Using Political Conventions as a Natural Experiment," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:11:y:2011:i:1:n:30
    DOI: 10.2202/1935-1682.2735
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    Cited by:

    1. Francesca Bettio & Marina Della Giusta & Maria Laura Di Tommaso & Sarah Jewell, 2016. "Stigmatising Prostitution: Some Evidence from the UK," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2016-13, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    2. Riccardo Ciacci, 2023. "On the economic determinants of prostitution: marriage compensation and unilateral divorce in U.S. states," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 941-1017, September.
    3. Andreas Lindenblatt & Peter Egger, 2017. "The long shadow of the Iron Curtain for female sex workers in German cities: Border effects and regional differences," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(3), pages 649-677, February.
    4. Della Giusta, Marina & Di Tommaso, Maria Laura & Bettio, Francesca & Jewell, Sarah, 2018. "Criminalising clients: some evidence from the UK," MPRA Paper 91480, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Riccardo Ciacci & Dario Sansone, 2023. "The impact of sodomy law repeals on crime," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(4), pages 2519-2548, October.
    6. Saheed Olawale Olayiwola & Bayo L.O. Kazeem & Emmanuel I. AJUDUA, 2022. "Determinants of Commercial Sex in South-West Nigeria: A Case Study of Akure Metropolis," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 6(9), pages 423-429, September.
    7. Gregory DeAngelo & Jacob N. Shapiro & Jeffrey Borowitz & Michael Cafarella & Christopher Ré & Gary Shiffman, 2019. "Pricing risk in prostitution: Evidence from online sex ads," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 281-305, December.
    8. Cunningham, Scott & DeAngelo, Gregory & Smith, Brock, 2020. "Fracking and risky sexual activity," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    9. Wilson Nicholas, 2019. "The World’s Oldest Profession? Employment-Age Profiles from the Transactional Sex Market," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-17, June.
    10. Amy Farmer & Andrew W. Horowitz, 2013. "Prostitutes, Pimps, and Brothels: Intermediaries, Information, and Market Structure in Prostitution Markets," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 79(3), pages 513-528, January.
    11. Marina Della Giusta & Maria Laura Di Tommaso & Sarah Jewell & Francesca Bettio, 2021. "Quashing demand or changing clients? Evidence of criminalization of sex work in the United Kingdom," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(2), pages 527-544, October.
    12. Helen Shuxuan Zeng & Brett Danaher & Michael D. Smith, 2022. "Internet Governance Through Site Shutdowns: The Impact of Shutting Down Two Major Commercial Sex Advertising Sites," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(11), pages 8234-8248, November.
    13. He, Guojun & Peng, Wenwei, 2022. "Guns and roses: Police complicity in organized prostitution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    14. Della Giusta, marina & Di Tommaso, Maria Laura & Jewell, Sarah L., 2014. "Stigma and Risky Behaviors among Clients of Prostitutes," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201419, University of Turin.
    15. Della Giusta, Marina & Di Tommaso, Maria Laura & Jewell, Sarah & Bettio, Francesca, 2019. "Quashing Demand Criminalizing Clients? Evidence from the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 12405, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Bocong Yuan & Jiannan Li, 2019. "The Policy Effect of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the Digital Public Health Sector in the European Union: An Empirical Investigation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-15, March.
    17. Andreas Kotsadam & Niklas Jakobsson, 2014. "Shame on you, John! Laws, stigmatization, and the demand for sex," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 393-404, June.

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