Seo-Young Cho

Determinants of Anti‐Trafficking Policies: Evidence from a New Index

We develop an index measuring the three main dimensions – prosecution, protection, and prevention – of the anti-trafficking policies of the governments of up to 180 countries over the 2000−2010 period. Overall, developed countries perform better than the rest of the world; compliance with prosecution policy is highest, while governmental efforts to protect victims of human trafficking remain weakest. We employ the new indices to investigate which factors determine anti-trafficking policies. We find that compliance with anti-trafficking policies significantly decreases with corruption and is higher in countries that also respect the rights of women. We also find some tentative evidence for spatial dependence in anti-trafficking policies.

Evaluating Policies Against Human Trafficking Worldwide: An Overview and Review of the 3P Index

The recent evaluation outcome of the 3P Anti-Trafficking Policy Index shows that many countries fail to provide proper protection for victims of human trafficking. Furthermore, prosecution efforts have recently declined worldwide due to negligence in enforcement. These findings suggest that the policy focus of human rights and the actual implementation of written law are central to successfully achieving anti-trafficking objectives.

Human Trafficking, A Shadow of Migration – Evidence from Germany

This paper investigates relationship between migration and human trafficking in Germany by analyzing macro-level data from 150 countries. The empirical results suggest that migrant networks of a specific source country pull human trafficking from that respective country. However, the migration effect varies across different income levels of source countries. The positive effect of migration on human trafficking decreases as income increases, and furthermore, the effect is irrelevant to high income countries. In addition, the migration effect is particularly significant on the criminalisation side of human trafficking, but the evidence is less clear when it concerns the victimisation side.

A League of Their Own: Female Soccer, Male Legacy and Women's Empowerment

This paper investigates whether male soccer tradition can predict the success of female soccer. Different from the existing literature, this paper utilizes panel data covering 175 countries during the 1991-2011 period, capturing country heterogeneity effects and time trends. An instrumental variable approach is further employed in order to identify causal relation. My findings do not support the widespread perception that male tradition determines female soccer attainments. On the other hand, my results indicate that womens empowerment can be a driving force for the success of female soccer.

Explaining Gender Differences in Confidence and Overconfidence in Math

This paper investigates empirically how and why men and women are different in their confidence levels. In the analysis, confidence is disentangled into two dimensions: confidence in correct math knowledge and overconfidence in false knowledge. Using the data of the PISA test in math, the findings highlight that math abilities have different effects on boys and girls. Overall, math abilities increase confidence and decrease overconfidence. However, the positive effect on confidence is smaller for girls, and the negative effect on overconfidence is larger for them. This gender-asymmetric effect implies that well-performing girls are more constrained from gaining confident attitudes through their abilities, compared to well-performing boys. The empirical evidence further indicates that the gender-asymmetric effect of abilities can be explained by gender socialization that undermines women’s achievements and limit their opportunities.