Proceedings of the 6th Economic & Finance Conference, OECD Headquarters, Paris

SEX WORK VS. SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: ASSESSING GUESSTIMATES FOR PROSTITUTION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

PHILIPPE ADAIR, OKSANA NEZHYVENKO

Abstract:

Prostitution regimes in the EU-28 include prohibition, regulation and abolition; economics literature tackles this typology from the perspective of both free sex work and forced labour trafficking. We review the data sources on the demand-side and the supply-side in order to gauge how large is the sex market and informal employment for sex workers. We calculate Estimates 1A and 1B from miscellaneous sources, whereas HIV prevalence among sex workers from World Health Organisation provides Estimates 2A and 2B. We calculate Estimate 3 from victims of sexual exploitation trafficking according to data collected by the UNODC and Eurostat. We design an OLS model to test the five Estimates of prostitution in EU-28 according to GDP per capita, legislation, supply-side and demand-side variables. Last, we assess which might be the most likely Estimates as regards GDP enhancement in 2010, with respect to National Accounts adjustment for illegal production and consumption expenditure. Hence, we come up with a lower bound Estimate that may be used as a benchmark for macroeconomic policy.

Keywords: EU-28; informal employment; National Accounts; Non Observed Economy; prostitution; sex work; sexual exploitation trafficking.

DOI: 10.20472/EFC.2016.006.002

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