Do Economic Growth and Education Matter in Combating Human Trafficking? An Analysis of State Level Panel Data in the U.S

Human trafficking, consisting of all forms of nonconsensual forced or lured labor, is a violation of human rights and has severe impacts on the affected individuals, families, and society. In this paper, we investigate the factors of economic development, educational attainment, and states that potentially influence human trafficking in the U.S. Using panel data of human trafficking reports from all fifty states and D.C. from 2016 to 2021, we obtain interesting results. First, economic development has a small but significant negative effect on human trafficking within states, implying that economic development helps to reduce human trafficking, although richer states have slightly more cases. Second, it is surprising that high school graduation rates have a positive rather than negative effect, implying that education correlates with more identified trafficking cases. A possible explanation is that education increases the population’s awareness of trafficking activities, leading to higher reporting rates. Last, some states reveal significant effects, indicating geographical differences in the country. These findings have important policy and social implications.