Modern Slavery and Mistrust: A Conceptual Replication of Nunn & Wantchekon (AER, 2011)

Gewei Cao and Hannes Rusch
Additional contact information
Gewei Cao: RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, Microeconomics & Public Economics
Hannes Rusch: RS: GSBE UM-BIC, Microeconomics & Public Economics, RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research

No 8, Research Memorandum from Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE)

Abstract: Human trafficking is a modern form of slave trading. While we know that it inflicts substantial damage on its victims, its broader societal impact is not well understood. Inspired by Nunn & Wantchekon (2011, AER), we study whether human trafficking shapes interpersonal trust in two severely affected countries for which suitable criminal statistics and survey data are available: Romania and India. We find that victimization rates at the sub-national level are robustly linked to lower interpersonal trust. Our results corroborate those of Nunn & Wantchekon, conceptually replicate them in the economics of crime, and highlight their persistent contemporary relevance.

JEL-codes: D91 J47 J83 K42 O17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-09-22
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ws/files/276264568/RM25008.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unm:umagsb:2025008

DOI: 10.26481/umagsb.2025008

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Research Memorandum from Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Andrea Willems () and Angie Figueroa Alarcon ().