Downstream effects of Prostitution

Abstract

This paper aims to identify whether young women who worked as sex-workers in the past suffer from long-term penalty in labor market and marriage market due to the social stigma associated with prostitution. According to Verhoven (2017), sex workers often define themselves as entrepreneurs and their work choice as a possibility to improve their lives financially. To them, this type of work often carries a temporal aspect that’s preferred to overcome the financial hardships they face. Building on this motivation, we aim to study the long-term impacts of entry to sex work on relationships and careers of sex workers.