Sex work and online platforms: what should regulation do?

IF 1.5 Q2 ECONOMICS

Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy Pub Date : 2020-12-08 DOI:10.1108/jepp-03-2019-0009

Nick Cowen, Rachela Colosi

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose is to assess the impact of online platforms on the sex industry, focusing specifically on direct sex work, and evaluate what approaches to platform regulation is likely to align with the interests of sex workers.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents a review of interdisciplinary conceptual and empirical literature on sex work combined with analysis of key issues using a transaction cost framework.

Findings

Online platforms generally make sex work safer. Regulation aimed at preventing platforms from serving sex workers is likely to harm their welfare.

Research limitations/implications

Regulation of online platforms should take great care to differentiate coercive sex from consensual sex work, and allow sex workers to experiment with governance mechanisms provided by entrepreneurs.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates how a transactions costs approach to market behaviour as applied to personal services like ridesharing can also shed light on the challenges that sex workers face, partly as a result of criminalisation, and the dangers of over-regulation.

查看原文本刊更多论文

性工作与网络平台:监管应该怎么做?

目的是评估在线平台对性产业的影响，特别是直接的性工作，并评估哪些平台监管方法可能符合性工作者的利益。设计/方法/方法本文回顾了有关性工作的跨学科概念和实证文献，并结合交易成本框架对关键问题进行了分析。研究结果:网络平台通常会让性工作更安全。旨在阻止平台为性工作者提供服务的规定可能会损害她们的福利。研究局限/启示在线平台的监管应非常小心地区分强迫性行为和自愿性工作，并允许性工作者尝试企业家提供的治理机制。这篇论文展示了如何将市场行为的交易成本方法应用于拼车等个人服务，也可以揭示性工作者面临的挑战，部分原因是犯罪化，以及过度监管的危险。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

3.70

自引率

15.80%

发文量

期刊介绍： Institutions – especially public policies – are a significant determinant of economic outcomes; entrepreneurship and enterprise development are often the channel by which public policies affect economic outcomes, and by which outcomes feed back to the policy process. The Journal of Entrepreneurship & Public Policy (JEPP) was created to encourage and disseminate quality research about these vital relationships. The ultimate aim is to improve the quality of the political discourse about entrepreneurship and development policies. JEPP publishes two issues per year and welcomes: Empirically oriented academic papers and accepts a wide variety of empirical evidence. Generally, the journal considers any analysis based on real-world circumstances and conditions that can change behaviour, legislation, or outcomes, Conceptual or theoretical papers that indicate a direction for future research, or otherwise advance the field of study, A limited number of carefully and accurately executed replication studies, Book reviews. In general, JEPP seeks high-quality articles that say something interesting about the relationships among public policy and entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship and economic development, or all three areas. Scope/Coverage: Entrepreneurship, Public policy, Public policies and behaviour of economic agents, Interjurisdictional differentials and their effects, Law and entrepreneurship, New firms; startups, Microeconomic analyses of economic development, Development planning and policy, Innovation and invention: processes and incentives, Regional economic activity: growth, development, and changes, Regional development policy.