The world’s oldest profession has come into the media spotlight after the Spitzer sex scandal, which cost the former New York governor his job and much more besides.
The episode has raised a new round of debate about the legality of prostitution. Tyler Cowen points out the absurdity of jailing someone because of a particular interpretation of their consensual sexual acts. Will Wilkinson notes that the criminalization of sex work adds to the social and legal stigma attached to prostitution. On the other side, Nicholas Kristof argues that legalization encourages the sex industry.
Prostitution, by virtue of its sensitive nature, carries with it much emotional baggage. Economic analysis allows us to temporarily strip the issue of the messy moral and human rights issues to focus on the bare bones of the problem. The result, as we shall see, can run entirely against what the lawmakers have in mind.
