Highway havens for hidden horrors: Expressway connections and child trafficking in China

Abstract

Child trafficking is a deep-seated social issue with enduring consequences that remain concealed or less obvious to the general public. We argue that the intensity of child trafficking increases as an indirect and unintended consequence of improved urban infrastructure, such as the construction of highways that facilitate the expedient transfer of victims between cities. To establish a causal relationship, we analyze data on child abduction and combine it with geo-referenced information on China’s highway routes. Using a staggered difference-in-differences approach and a city-to-city analysis, we find that the construction of highways in a city significantly leads to an increase in abducted children. Changes in both demand and supply factors following the highway construction could explain the increase in child trafficking.