The Determinants of Anti-trafficking Policies – Evidence from a New Index

37 Pages Posted: 1 Aug 2011 Last revised: 31 Aug 2012

See all articles by Eric Neumayer

Eric Neumayer

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Axel Dreher

Heidelberg University

Seo-Young Cho

University of Marburg - School of Business & Economics

Date Written: 2011

Abstract

We develop a new index measuring governments’ anti-trafficking policies for up to 180 countries over the 2000-2010 period. We assess a country’s level of compliance in the three main dimensions of anti-trafficking policies – prosecution, protection and prevention. The results show that compliance with prosecution policy is highest, while governmental efforts to protect victims of human trafficking remain weakest. Overall, developed countries perform better than the rest of the world. We employ the new indices to investigate what determines anti-trafficking policies. We find that compliance with anti-trafficking policies significantly decreases with corruption and is higher in countries that also respect the rights of women. We also find some tentative evidence for spatial dependence in anti-trafficking policies.

Keywords: human trafficking, human rights, compliance, anti-trafficking policies

JEL Classification: O15, F22, P41

Suggested Citation

Neumayer, Eric and Dreher, Axel and Cho, Seo-Young, The Determinants of Anti-trafficking Policies – Evidence from a New Index (2011). APSA 2011 Annual Meeting Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1900194

Eric Neumayer (Contact Author)

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://https://ericneumayer.wordpress.com/

Axel Dreher

Heidelberg University ( email )

Grabengasse 1
Heidelberg, 69117
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.axel-dreher.de

Seo-Young Cho

University of Marburg - School of Business & Economics ( email )

Barfuessertor 2
Marburg, Hessen 35037
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.economics-human-trafficking.org/

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