The Determinants of Human Trafficking in the European Union

Authors: Tallmadge, Rachel & Gitter, Robert

Abstract: Human trafficking affects an estimated 27 million people worldwide. We use a recently available European Union longitudinal cross-national data set to determine the factors that affect the rate of trafficking in a nation, employing a model of the number of people a trafficker would offer to those that would purchase the victims. We find that higher rates of trafficking are predicted in nations where immigrants are a larger share of the population, there is access to the sea, the level of GDP per capita is low, and the level of unemployment low. Controlling for these factors, in terms of policy, we find that legalized prostitution increases the rate of human trafficking.

Keywords: European Union, human trafficking, prostitution, statistical analysis