1. The economics of prostitution. The best way to limit prostitution is to raise male wages, thereby increasing the return to becoming a wife.
I haven’t followed the link, but I have to wonder why male wages? Why not put a floor under all wages? Is being a wife the best option for women?
Really?
<update> Finally read the article today.
ABC News: Who’s Counting: Sexonomics — Prostitutes’ Incomes:
Employing market concepts, doing some calculus and assuming that “women sell and men buy,” the authors also conclude that prostitution generally declines as men’s incomes increase.
Wives and prostitutes are competing “commodities” (in the reductionist view of economists, that is), but wives are distinctly superior in that they can produce children that are socially recognized as coming from the father.
Thus, if men have more money, they tend to buy the superior good and, at least when wives and prostitutes come from the same pool of women, tend to buy (rent) the cheaper good less frequently.
More obvious perhaps is that prostitution generally declines in areas where women’s incomes and opportunities are greater.
Putting these two tendencies together suggests that if one wishes to reduce prostitution, increasing the incomes of both men and women is likely to be more effective than imposing legal penalties.
Well, wouldja look at that. They needed a grant for that?