CORRUPTION

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Interview with Dr. Robert Lawson Interview with Dr. Robert Lawson Southern Methodist University International Affairs Forum What drew you to a career in the study of economics? I toyed with the idea of studying political science with an eye toward politics or law, but the analytical rigor of the field drew me toward economics. Policy-making is frequently driven by emotions and serious mistakes happen often as a result. For example, the natural desire to help people who lose jobs to foreign competition leads to protectionist policies that make the nation poorer. The serious, cold-hearted calculus of costs and benefits embedded within economics offers a useful counterbalance to such policies. How have you applied your study of economics to the topic of human trafficking? This is a relatively new area of interest for me. I have published one study on the topic: “Is Human Trafficking the Dark Side of Economic Freedom?” in Defence and Peace Economics, coauthored with Lauren Heller (Berry College), Ryan Murphy (SMU), and Claudia Williamson (Mississippi State). The paper uses data on human trafficking at the country level to examine whether freer markets exacerbate or attenuate the incidence of human trafficking. What are some examples of economic phenomena that could result in problems like human trafficking? One argument is that developed countries demand cheap labor in order to produce the quantity and variety of goods wealthier consumers desire. In addition, developed nations tend to have more open borders, increasing the flow of goods and people, which may lower the costs to traffic. These arguments place the emphasis on the demand side of the market, blaming human trafficking on first-world consumers’ thirst for cheap goods. For some commentators, human trafficking is just another example of the exploitation associated with “neoliberal” markets everywhere. I am skeptical of this argument myself. An open market economy will certainly expand opportunities for exchange, increasing the overall scale of economic transactions. However, a more free economy with fewer labor market restrictions should decrease the incentive to traffic labor, as voluntary labor is readily available for purchase on the open market at a variety of prices. It is also well established that economically freer societies have greater potential for growth. Hence, economic freedom may decrease the quantity of human trafficking victims supplied. Does human trafficking occur more often in nations with underdeveloped or corrupt economies? If so, why do you think this happens? One of the purposes of our work was to distinguish the impact of development from economic freedom on human trafficking. This is difficult to do because more economically free countries also tend to be more developed. 114
International Affairs Forum Fall 2016 After controlling for both effects, we found that income per capita is the largest predictor of the destination of trafficked persons. Richer, more developed countries are indeed receiving more trafficked people. Economic freedom as such had no impact here. or adult pornography do not necessarily involve coercion. It is a categorical mistake to assume that all prostitutes are victims of human trafficking. The buyers and sellers in most black markets are operating completely voluntarily and there is no force involved per se. In contrast, when looking at the country of origin data, we found that income levels did not matter and economic freedom did, but not in the way opponents of “neoliberalism” would imagine. Countries with less economic freedom, meaning more taxes, protectionism, and government regulation, were greater suppliers of trafficked persons. Democracy, press freedom, and legal origins did not exhibit a robust association with trafficking in any way. What are the best economic practices to combat human trafficking? We did not find much evidence that policies directly aimed at stopping human trafficking are reducing the actual incidence of human trafficking. Economic development, especially if driven by economic freedom, seems to be the best approach to combatting human trafficking. Although development can fuel the demand for trafficked persons in recipient countries, it also can serve to dry up the supply from source nations. What other black market goods could potentially be trafficked in addition to humans (or have been in the past)? We should be careful not to equate human trafficking, which necessarily involves physical or serious psychological coercion, with run-ofthe-mill black markets. Black markets for illegal products like drugs, sex, untaxed cigarettes, With that said, human trafficking is frequently a direct response to the many governmentimposed restrictions on free commerce. Migration restrictions, work-visa rules, antiprostitution laws, etc. frequently push people into the hands of human traffickers because legal means of migrating and working are closed off. More generally, economically free countries experience less crime, fewer black market transactions, less organized crime, and afford less opportunity to carry out illicit transactions without discovery. As Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis once argued, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants”. Economically freer societies may offer more “sunlight”, exposing traffickers and decreasing incentives to engage in such behavior in the first place. Are there economic costs associated with human trafficking? If so, what are they? There are certainly costs, but there are also benefits. Almost by definition, however, human trafficking generates more costs than benefits. Given that human trafficking victims are not voluntarily agreeing to the market exchanges in which they are forced to participate, the costs certainly exceed the benefits in their eyes. It is not that people are moving from place to place with the assistance of “coyotes” or the unsavory nature (in some people’s eyes) of the work involved that is the problem of human trafficking. The problem is that people are being forced to move and work against their will. Fall 2016 115
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Fall 2016 Volume 7, Issue 2 CORRUPT
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HUMAN TRAFFICKING 73 Interview with
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Special Themed Issue: Editors’ In
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9 Corruption - Security: Forging US
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Political Will - or Political Won
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Political Will - or Political Won
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Interview with Raymond Baker Intern
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Interview with Dr. Julio Bacio Terr
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Interview with Professor Louise She
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Corruption: Is the Right Message Ge
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Corruption: Is the Right Message Ge
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Interview with Professor Suelette D
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New Methods to Engage Civil Society
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New Methods to Engage Civil Society
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Transparency and Open Contracting T
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Treating Health and Pharmaceutical
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Treating Health and Pharmaceutical
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Interview with Professor Emerita He
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Page 80 and 81: Interview with Matthew Friedman Int
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Page 110 and 111: Child Trafficking in China: Who Are
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Page 120 and 121: Interview with Professor Susanne Lu
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Page 140 and 141: Interview with Ms. Taina Bien-Aimé
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Page 160 and 161: REFERENCES AND FOOTNOTES Corruption
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Shen, Anqi (2015). Offending Women
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direct experience of some of the is
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