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Understanding Human Trafficking Origin: A Cross-Country Empirical Analysis

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  • Smriti Rao
  • Christina Presenti

Abstract

Feminist work on global human trafficking has highlighted the conceptual difficulty of differentiating between trafficking and migration. This contribution uses a cross-country United Nations Office on Crime and Drugs dataset on human trafficking from 2006 to empirically evaluate the socioeconomic characteristics of high-trafficking origin countries and compare them with patterns that have emerged in the literature on migration. In particular, the authors ask how and how much per capita income and gender inequality matter in shaping patterns of human trafficking. Ordinal logit regressions corrected for sample selection bias show that trafficking has an inverse U-shaped relationship with income per capita, and, controlling for income per capita, trafficking is more likely in countries with higher shares of female-to-male income. These results suggest strong parallels between patterns of trafficking and migration and lead the authors to believe that trafficking cannot be addressed without addressing the drivers of migration.

Suggested Citation

  • Smriti Rao & Christina Presenti, 2012. "Understanding Human Trafficking Origin: A Cross-Country Empirical Analysis," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 231-263, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:18:y:2012:i:2:p:231-263
    DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2012.680978
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Timothy J. Hatton & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2002. "What Fundamentals Drive World Migration?," NBER Working Papers 9159, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Jayati Ghosh, 2009. "Migration and Gender Empowerment: Recent Trends and Emerging Issues," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2009-04, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), revised Apr 2009.
    3. World Bank, 2005. "World Development Indicators 2005," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 12426.
    4. repec:wbk:wbpubs:12425 is not listed on IDEAS
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    Cited by:

    1. Niklas Potrafke, 2016. "Policies against human trafficking: the role of religion and political institutions," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 353-386, November.
    2. Willert, Bianca, 2021. "Modern Slavery – An Empirical Analysis," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 167, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics, revised 2021.
    3. Francesca Cimino & Paola Degani, 2024. "On Migrants’ Identification Issues In Italy: The Case Of Trafficked Women Within Mixed Migration Flows1," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 1299-1324, September.
    4. Jakobsson, Niklas & Kotsadam, Andreas, 2015. "The Economics of Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation," Memorandum 07/2015, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    5. Seo-Young Cho, 2015. "Modeling for Determinants of Human Trafficking: An Empirical Analysis," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(1), pages 2-21.
    6. Anuj Gurung & Amanda D Clark, 2018. "The perfect storm: The impact of disaster severity on internal human trafficking," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 21(4), pages 302-322, December.

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