The Economics of Slavery: A Market-Based Approach of Combatting Human Trafficking

Abstract

Human trafficking is a rapidly-growing criminal industry that spans the globe, deeply entrenched in the functioning of the global economy. It is a market, with supply, demand, and commodities that are traded—but in this case, the commodities are people themselves. This paper analyzes the economic structure of the market for human trafficking, examines the current strategies of combatting human trafficking, and shows how those strategies do not adequately address the issues underlying slavery. This paper then introduces the market-based approach of combatting human trafficking, which is an attempt to identify the factors that affect supply and demand in the market, and then determine how to manipulate the supply and demand in order move the market equilibrium—thereby decreasing the amount of victims of trafficking.