2: Concepts and Theory About Markets for Sex

Economists’ toolbox for studying markets has improved our understanding of what is happening in commercial sexual exchanges. For instance, the general principles of supply and demand, complementary goods and price formation can learn a great deal from mainstream theorising and empirical studies about markets. Some scholars have attempted to translate these principles to markets for sex with quite a bit of success.

Chapters 2 and 3 summarise what economists have learnt from studying sex work as a market. This chapter starts with the theoretical fundamentals, explaining two things. First, it attempts to set the focus sharply on what it means that prostitution is a market. A rationale is presented for how one can understand commercial sex as a market (Section 1). Further, given the scarcity of economic theories regarding commercial sex, this chapter presents the two well-known theoretical frameworks that try to connect mainstream economic theory to markets for sex. These two frames are briefly assessed with supporting and critical empirical aspects of what is known about commercial sex.