the economics of prostitution

the economics of prostitution

this is a book “super freakoconomics” by stevender levitt and stephen j. dubner.

it starts with discussions about prostitution in chicago. an indian sudhir venketesh spent over three years studying prostitution in three areas of chicago.

it is economics all-round. some prostitutes work through pimps while some are self-enterprising. the finding is that though the pimps take away a major part of earning, yet the prostitutes in that case earn more. moreover, because of pimps, they are safe from the police with whom pimps have long duration agreement.

an interesting finding is that every fourth july or memorial day or christmas, there are family reunions. but this is also a period of spike in business for the prostitutes. venketesh found that during this period many of the regular housewives also join in. it is simple economic principal, when there is boom in the market, many new players join in who fade away as soon as the boom is over.

the book also talks of high-end prostitutes. they have their own apartment. they choose their own clients. they are safe from the police. and they earn much more than the normal prostitutes.

venktesh noted that in an earlir period, women pimps (or madams) predominated but gradually the men replaced the. againg an instance of economic rules. men get better opportunities than the women and better oay attracts them and drives out women.

what about police and community leaders. they do not approve it but interference is negligible for a variety of reasons. prostitutes, without pimps, pay to policemen for protection ( normally via sex) while pimps arrange protection by open deals. there is an agreement that children parks will be spared and most of action will be indoors.

finally, the wages are falling. why? over the last fifty years or so, society is becoming open, sex before marriage (and without promise of marriage) is on the rise, when men can get sex for free, why spend on it. same goes for extramarital sex. (note – this is the state of affairs in united states. india has still to catch up).

(publishers –allen lane (a unit of penguin books – 2009)