What else does one ponder in Amsterdam? Majkthise says yes, prostitution should be cartelized:
It is important to legalize and regulate the sex trade in ways that enhance the autonomy of sex workers. There are many good reasons not to let sex work become another service sector job.
It seems only fair that the world's oldest profession should be granted the legal status of other self-regulating profession. Sex workers should have professional organizations that license and certify members according to the standards of their peers. Doctors and lawyers have a similarly sweet deal in which the state agrees to impose a monopoly on the supply of healers and advocates in exchange for quality assurance. If the law said that you had to be a registered member of your State Prostitute's Guild in order to legally sell sex, then only people who actively sought to qualify themselves would be eligible to work as prostitutes.
I see two paths. The first is an anti-egalitarian premise. "It is only the politically connected prostitutes we should care about. They will bring prostitution to a higher art form and lead better lives."
Second, prostitution as an occupation, might be subject to crowding costs. In that case a tax or quantity restriction can improve matters, just as a toll on a busy road might decrease congestion by pushing people toward less crowded routes (average vs. marginal values).
The argument must be that as prostitute wages fall, the sector brings more abductions and beatings. Perhaps the lower wage attracts the legally helpless. For this effect to imply the efficiency of cartelization, the worsening of treatment must be stronger in the sex industry than in the other sectors "marginal prostitutes" might work in.
I worry about the secondary consequences of cartelization. Cartelization creates supra-normal profits for illegal entrants; this encourages the very kinds of illegal and oppressive behavior that cartelization was designed to prevent.
I wish to legalize prostitution, not cartelize it. But it is tricky. Communities should zone prostitution out of most areas, and that will limit supply. Even minimal health regulations on prostitutes will limit supply as well. Partial cartelization is probably part of a good solution, but that is distinct from seeking cartelization for its own sake.
Please note this is not a post about immigration; for the purposes of argument take the number of women in a country as given.
As for zoning, had I mentioned that in Amsterdam one can find a kindergarten right between two open-window whorehouses? I was told by one woman that this is "not a problem." She was, however, a former prostitute and perhaps not a credible source; she may have been concerned with the Pigouvian definition of externalities (the externality runs one way only) at the expense of the Coasean definition (consider the effects on all relevant parties).
In Amsterdam (I am told), twenty minutes in the red light district costs 30 to 50 Euros. I wonder how close that is to an optimal degree of cartelization?
Addendum: How is this for a bizarre sentence?
In the year 2000, the Dutch Ministry of Justice argued for a legal quota of foreign sex workers, because the Dutch prostitution market demands a variety of bodies (Dutting, 2001: 16). [Source here]
That is one of the most er…creative arguments for protectionism I have heard…
Second addendum: Here is a fascinating article about French policy.
Herr Cowen,
If disease were not a concern, an unrestricted market for prostitution would make perfect sense.
It would be nice if STD tests were readily available (i.e. home kits etc…), inexpensive and with immediate results.
I don’t think that a cartel would help. Prostitutes will cheat. The degrees of a doctor can be verified once and the accreditation remains valid. This is not possible with prostitution.
What if prostitutes had to buy insurance, and the premium would increase based on the number of claims made against it (for disease). That may help to keep out the sickly people.
I took it that way at first too, (pro trade), but I think the author is concerned about too many foreign bodies (from the same couple of regions) and not enough variety.
It seems to me that professionalisation is at least arguably appropriate where there is a very large information problem: because outcomes are multifactorial, it is hard for consumers to tell whether they are getting good medical care, accounting or legal advice (although the internet is changing this somewhat.) When coupled with decisions that have very large impacts–bad legal advice can bankrupt you, bad medical care kill you–the dangers of bad decisions are very large. One trades off the risk (certainty) that members of the profession will collude to exclude new entrants in return for their services in establishing at least minimal standards of what constitutes good practice.
I see no such problem with prostitution. Surely customers are fairly good judges of the quality of the product? And as long as one wears a condom, the long-term consequences of a bad experience are practically nil.
As for the prostitutes, I have the same answer for them as for every profession that thinks it is so special that the government should protect it from competition: if you don’t like it, learn to do something else. Surely prostitution, with its risk of disease and the dim prospects for workers over 35, is not something the government should be encouraging more women to get into.
As long as a sex worker has the right to say no — the legal distinction
between prostitution and dating is as nuanced as the distinction between
gambling and insurance. The participants need to accept some
set of rules — and should be protected by either a contract or
minimal oversight. Registration, at the very least.
We can’t have sex workers charging rape every time a check bounces.
“As for zoning, had I mentioned that in Amsterdam one can find a kindergarten right between two open-window whorehouses?”
Where is that? OK, so I don’t have the red light district memorized or anything but…
The Dutch are pretty controlling in this area as well as coffee shops. Try to get a license to open either in Edam!
Tyler,
Recall of course that there was an attempt at cartelisation here in NZ after legalisation. A street worker was killed by competitors for chiselling on prices. I don’t know why the Commerce Commission didn’t investigate.
The zoning issue’s been an interesting one. City Councils have sought to zone brothels out of suburban areas, but that was tossed out by the courts as being unreasonable in the case of SOOBs (Suburban Owner-Occupied Brothels) where a woman would work out of her home.
It will be fascinating to see how this all plays out.
Prostitution Cartels…a related post
The police have arrested ten foreign nationals for alleged involvement in prostitution†¦
“From what we gathered from the investigation so far, it appears that they are sending the money made from prostitution to their agents in their country†¦The individuals themselves are paid by their agents…
http://truckandbarter.com/mt/archives/2006/07/prostitution_ca.html
Concern for sex workers is all very well, but I’m concerned that it is distracting attention from the
serious issue of the exploitation of men in the furniture moving business. Although some women work in
this industry, it mostly preys upon men. Many large, strong, poorly-educated men are lured into the
industry by the promise of easy money, but often after only a couple of decades in the business these men
are so degraded physically that they are no longer able to work and lack skills to gain employment outside
of physical labour. Spinal injuries are common and quite literally many of these men work themselves into
an early grave. I would like the government to improve educational opportunites for young men at risk so
they won’t fall into furniture moving, and for training to be offered to those who want to get out of the
industry so they can make better lives for themselves and their families.
Neil -
My point was there is a risk the actors intentions could
be misrepresented or selectively reporesented in the absence
of a contract. It may have been a clumsy example. Of course
the service provider has a case for the debt — but not for rape.
I was flipping through the blog quickly, after reading the post about procrastination. For a moment I thought the title of this post was “Should procrastination be cartelized?” Now THAT would be an interesting question!
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