Sex Industry Research at Baylor

Browsing the sidebar links on an economics blog I eventually stumbled onto a link to this academic study:

Prostitution, Technology, and the Law: New Data and Directions
http://www.toddkendall.net/ProsTechLaw.pdf
A paper by Scott Cunningham of Baylor University Department of Economics and Todd D. Kendall dated July 2009 whose Abstract contained this sentence:

“We describe several databases researchers can employ to study modern prostitution and we illustrate the value of these data with several empirical analyses, including a hedonic valuation of prostitute characteristics and services, an analysis of the effects of an important change in the regulation of prostitute advertisement, and an estimate of the marital and family characteristics of technology‐facilitated prostitutes.”

This makes a distinction between “outdoor” sex work, AKA streetwalking, and the “indoor” variety (everything else) with an emphasis on technologically facilitated business practices, which is, of course, exactly what we are gathered together here in cyberspace to take part in.

Professor Cunningham notes “prostitutes face the potential for arrest and imprisonment, and a
substantial risk of violence from customers and others (Brewer, et al., 2006). If discovered by friends and family, prostitutes suffer social stigma and reduced social capital (Rasmusen, 1996; Giusta, Tommaso and Strom, 2009), including the lower marriage market opportunities that Edlund and Korn (2002) identify as a crucial opportunity cost driving wages.” and goes on:
“While many of these costs are unavoidable, the industrial organization of the prostitution market may be usefully modeled as an attempt to minimize three specific costs: advertising, personal security, and reputation-building.” He notes that these three costs/tasks can be delegated to agencies, pimps, “spas” or all provided by the woman herself and that the internet makes this much easier. Sufficiently easier to maybe make analysis based on arrest statistics obsolete for the technologically-facilitated part of the business.

To take a look at it the researchers used a program to download 500,000 reviews on 94,000 women from TER, which they describe as the largest of the internet review sites (yes, not in this area, I know), including more than 26,000 provider email addresses to which they sent invitations to participate in a detailed study of sex workers, Survey of Adult Service Providers (SASP). Half of the emails bounced, some of the addresses were as much as ten years old. Just under 700 women agreed to do the 267 question interviews, about 5% of those solicited.

The paper describes the efforts made to persuade potential participants that the researchers were not police or IRS and notes: “More than anything else, we learned that being polite and respectful towards the participants went, not surprisingly, a long way towards gaining their trust”.

Findings:
Some not surprising

* prices in Reno are 52% higher than those in Indiana

* breast implants appear to be more prevalent in beach locales with warm weather (e.g., Florida and Hawaii), and less popular in cold weather locales (e.g., Minnesota and Cleveland); this likely reflects the prevalence of implants among the resident population of those locations.

provision of anal sex in addition to escort service is associated with an average 10.5% higher hourly wage than escort service alone

massage services generally are priced at a 40.7% discount relative to escort services

* workers in their 20s receive higher wages than those in their late 30s and 40s, and workers with “thin” and “athletic” body types earn more than those with “baby fat” or “fat” body types.

Others a little unexpected:

* a unit increase in a worker’s average appearance rating is associated with a 9.2% increase in wages, a similar unit increase in a worker’s average performance rating is associated with a 2.0% decline in wages. The latter result may indicate important omitted variables.

* apparent lack of any premia on oral sex, even unprotected oral sex

Characteristics

Sex workers who operate their businesses through the Internet are quite well-educated, with nearly 80% having some college exposure, and nearly 40% graduating from college – a fact at odds with popular perceptions of prostitutes.

Also contrary to popular perceptions, respondents appear to have grown up in well-educated households, with over 64% of mothers having at least some college exposure.

We estimate that 23.3% of sex workers were cohabiting with a partner, and another 12.7% were married and living with their spouse. Thus, we estimate that over a third of modern sex workers are in partnered relationships.

We estimate that the average time spent in the sex work industry, at the time of the survey, was 5.57 years, with an average age at first entry into the profession of 23.94. Most respondents did not work continually though out this time, however; over 59% stated that they stopped working in the industry for some period of time after entry.

Frequently, we heard that the current economic downturn has led to significant churn in and out of the industry. Many interviewees noted what economic theory predicts – a decrease in sex worker wages caused by an expansion in supply and a decline in demand. For some women, wage declines led to increases in hours worked or declines in acceptable client quality, while for others, market wages fell below reservation values, leading to exit from the industry.

All 267 questions are listed in the Appendix including:

71. Did you see any clients in the last week?
72. How many clients did you see in the last week?
73. How many of them were regulars (customers you see frequently)?
74. How many days (including evenings) in the last seven days did you work?
75. About how much money did you make from working as an escort in the last week? Please indicate a dollar amount

I for one would be very interested in seeing the results of the data collected. Professor Cunningham, who is an economist, not a psychologist or a sociologist, appears to have a great many papers and contributions to books pending according to:
http://business.baylor.edu/Scott_Cun.../Research.html
As someone who has grown cynical as the result of living more than half a century in Texas I can’t help wondering how long before he gets fired by the Baptist university. Perhaps he will get some of that data published before then.

Dear Greymouse,

Thank you for your post. I am quite familiar with the published works you are referring to. Scott Cunningham has actually put out quite a few papers in the last 5 years or so on the subject, as well as similar subjects regarding socioeconomic status and risk behaviors. Personally, I do not believe that the conservative university is in any way going to let him go. His work is quite well thought out and researched. (I am willing to bet that he has private or federal grant money at his disposal for his work).

I am waiting for the day when economists realize how much the hobby industry boosts the general local economy. It encourages hobbyists to spend money they might not otherwise, and providers spend the cash on daily necessities, shopping, and items for the family.

BTW, the surveys he conducted were completely anonymous and privacy controls were put in place so that providers would not have to worry about their participation.

peace and love,

Scott Cunningham's prevalence in the study of black-market economics is fascinating. I've had the privilege of speaking with him personally on several occasions, most recently during his research for Prostitution, Technology, and the Law: New Data and Directions with Todd Kendall, and find him to be an incredibly curious, non-judgmental person with a penchant for pushing the limits at a traditionally Christian institution. And Crystal is absolutely correct about his discretion during his research; I recall many of us being skeptical when he contacted us via email to request participation in his Sex Workers' Survey, but I eventually responded and even did a lengthy telephone interview with him, and was pretty happy with the experience.

I had wondered how many local ladies had been invited to participate in Professor Cunningham's survey and what the reaction was. He notes that the study was the subject of on-line discussions, probably in women-only groups and that opinions varied about the wisdom of participating. That the average age of those who did was younger than the average of all TER workers probably means that younger women were more able to see value in more being known about the industry. I would like to thank all the ladies who did take part.

I neglected Todd Kendall who co-authors most of these papers with Dr. Cunningham and has a Phd in Economics from the University of Chicago. He appears to be with a think tank/consultant firm, Compass Lexicon. I just discovered that his website: http://www.toddkendall.net/ and Cunningham’s site:
http://business.baylor.edu/Scott_Cun.../Research.html
has links to several more of these papers and have been happily downloading the pdfs. One of the papers is “The Effect of Internet Access on Divorce Rates”. Now that is a goody! Fascinating stuff, far more interesting than the petty quarrels and pretend quarrels around here, IMHO, but I like to know how things work, really, as opposed to emoting about ‘beliefs”.

The Southern Baptist Convention lost much of it's control over Baylor in 1991 when the University was granted a change in charter by The State of Texas. Only 25% of the Board of Regents are appointed by the SBC. Mr Cunningham is probably safe.

There's also two Professors in their sociology department that have been publishing papers on ghosts and other psi phenomena.

There's also two Professors in their sociology department that have been publishing papers on ghosts and other psi phenomena. Originally Posted by glad_he_ate_her

I am sure they no longer teach that the world is only 6,000 years old either. And Baylor Medical no longer uses leaches....

But anyway, this is fascinating.

Frequently, we heard that the current economic downturn has led to significant churn in and out of the industry. Many interviewees noted what economic theory predicts – a decrease in sex worker wages caused by an expansion in supply and a decline in demand. For some women, wage declines led to increases in hours worked or declines in acceptable client quality, while for others, market wages fell below reservation values, leading to exit from the industry.

Did anyone else notice that paragraph?

It's the free market.