Colombia as many other countries deals with women prostitution. Prostitution is a women own decision but in some cases socioeconomic environment push them to work on it. This note deals this issue and highlight potential solution to reduce prostitution for those women who do not want to do it. For instance, an universal free health system and the right to get a pension ( at least take prostitutes inside health programs and pension system) are the basic rights. There are other socioeconomic variables to work on such as more opportunities to afford secondary school and high education; less families under poverty line; better income distribution; and low violence indicators through professional Police department. Colombia had 52,967 prostitutes in 1975 and 9,744 in 2010, it means a decline annual growth rate of 4.9%. However, prostitution decision increases as economic crisis appears, from economic view means a countercyclical relation between prostitution decision and economic growth, from society view means lack of government decisions and opportunities to get out them of poverty state, mainly for young prostitutes (older than 17).
Colombian Police Department does great job collecting data about this issue, hopefully they will go through prostitution census on 2011 and 2012
Author: Humberto Bernal,
Economist,
e-mail: zhumber@gmail.com
Prostitution comes since 18th century B.C, this activity born before other economic issues such as unemployment, income distribution and economic growth, then the question is why do prostitutes do it?. My hypothesis is these adult women (older that 17) work in this profession because there are not other opportunities available for them such as be lawyers, bankers, economists, chefs and so. Afford these studies carry spending on transport, food, rent and in most of cases the payment for education service. In addition, some of these women (not all) enjoy her job and the payment is high (in Colombia this payment goes from US$15 to US$1,000). This note deals with prostitution in Colombia, the data come from colombian Police Journal Review Criminality and from colombian Bureau of Statistics (DANE), the data was picked up from tolerance zones in Colombia.
Prostitution is legal in Colombia but regulated, it means there are special places where prostitutes can work, these places are called tolerance zones. Figure 1 shows the number of prostitutes in Colombia since 1965, one can take this data as prostitutes that say they work on it, it can be women who work in the “balck marke” (those who prefer not say their profession, they are mostly escorts). The number of prostitutes showed a negative trend, from 52,967 women who worked in 1976, nowadays there are 9,744 approximately, it means a decreasing annual rate of 4.9% between 1976 and 2010.
Figure 1. Prostitution in Colombia 1965 2010
(number of women)
This negative trend can be explained by better secondary education coverture, higher income per capita payed in other professions, better country security and government programs to get out families from poverty state, nevertheless these economic indicators are poor still to give real opportunities for those young women who want to leave this activity. Table 1 shows the effect from socioeconomic variables on woman decision to follow prostitution activity (Place of birth of prostitutes). One can summarize this table as more coverture in secondary education (1.0% better), then prostitution decision shows a reduction about 3.46%; as more people (families) are in poverty (1.0% more), there is an increase of prostitution decision about 2.29%; as Gross Domestic Product per capita (taken out oil and mining production) increases (1.0% more), then prostitution decision declines about 0.32%, this last result is low due to income distribution in colombia is high (about GINI=0.54), it means there is a big slice of GDP taken by few wealthily rich people.
Table 1. Why prostitutes do it?, economist view
(panel data by regions in Colombia 2008-2010)
Place of birth
|
Place of work
|
|
Secondary education
|
-3,46%
|
-0,80%
|
Poverty line
|
2,29%
|
1,66%
|
GDP no oil (PPP) per capita
|
-0,32%
|
0,54%
|
Homicide rate
|
-0,86%
|
|
GINI
|
0,94%
|
|
Hausman test
|
P-value = 0,002
Model: Fixed effects
|
P-value = 0,058
Model: Random effects
|
Source: Colombian Police Data. (Criminalidad Review. 2008. Vol 50, Issue I, and following Volumes).
Own calculations STATA 12.1.
Where do prostitutes do it?. Prostitutes work where there is poor education, bad income distribution and good payment. Table 1 shows the main socioeconomic variable that prostitutes take into account to decide the place to work (Place of work). They go where secondary education coverture is low, for instance if a place shows an increase about 1.0% in secondary education coverture, prostitution activity shows a reduction about 0.80% (the other way around is true also, when secondary education decreases); if place shows an increase in poverty line in 1.0%, the prostitution activity arises in 1.66%; moreover if GDP per capita increases, prostitution activity increases about 0.54%, this result is due to high concentration in income distribution; finally if income distribution worse, prostitutes activity increases about 0.94%. The main places where prostitutes work in Colombia are showed in figure 2. One can see that main region are Risaralda with 19.2% of total prostitutes in Colombia in 2010, Valle (14.8%), Antioquia (10.1%), Caldas (7.1%) and Bogotá (7.0%), these regions show high GINI coefficients, high poverty, high violence and poor education.
Figure 2. Prostitution according to place of work 2010
(regions in Colombia, total prostitutes: 9,744)
Prostitution cycle and economic activity (GDP cycle)
Prostitution can be taken as economic leader indicator. As it was pointed, prostitution showed a declined trend since 1976 and young women decide to take this activity when income is difficult to get, therefore there are periods when prostitution decision activity (women who decided work on it) increases and periods when it decreases. Figure 3 shows the prostitution cycle (blue line) and GDP cycle (red line), one can say that these series are countercyclical (correlation coefficient is -0.26), it mean as economy is in crisis (meltdown scenario), then women under “poor condition” decide to take prostitution as an option to life on (increases prostitution cases). These correlation is valid in Colombia, for instance 1982, 1999, 2009 economic crisis brought more prostitutes. Therefore under poor secondary education, high poverty line indicator and high income distribution coefficient GINI, then Colombia will had women who take prostitution as obligatory option to life on.
Figure 3. Prostitution cycle and GDP cycle Colombia 1971-2010
(annual data)
Source: Colombian Police Data. (Criminalidad Review. 2008. Vol 50, Issue I, and following Volumes).
Own calculations STATA 12.1. Though Hodrick-Prescot filter.
Own calculations STATA 12.1. Though Hodrick-Prescot filter.
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