Economics, Sexuality, and Male Sex Work

Description

Male sex work generates sales in excess of one billion dollars annually in the United States. Recent sex scandals involving prominent leaders and government shutdowns of escort websites have focused attention on this business, but despite the attention that comes when these scandals break, we know very little about how the market works. Economics, Sexuality, and Male Sex Work is the first economic analysis of male sex work. Competition, the role of information, pricing strategies and other economic features of male sex work are analyzed using the most comprehensive data available. Sex work is also social behavior, however, and this book shows how the social aspects of gay sexuality influence the economic properties of the market. Concepts like desire, masculinity and sexual stereotypes affect how sex workers compete for clients, who practices safer sex, and how sex workers present themselves to clients to differentiate them from the competition. Cover ......Page 1 Half-title page......Page 3 Title page......Page 5 Copyright page......Page 6 Dedication......Page 7 Contents......Page 9 Figures......Page 11 Tables......Page 13 Note to Readers......Page 15 Acknowledgments......Page 17 Introduction: Economics, Sexuality, and Male Sex Work......Page 21 Part I The History and Economics of Male Sex Work......Page 37 1 Male Sex Work: Antiquity to Online......Page 39 2 Face Value: How Male Sex Workers Overcome the Problem of Asymmetric Information......Page 59 3 Market Movers: Travel, Cities, and the Network of Male Sex Work1......Page 95 Part II Male Sex Work and Sexuality......Page 129 4 Illicit Intersections: The Value of Sex Worker Services......Page 131 5 Show, Tell, and Sell: Self-Presentation in Male Sex Work......Page 162 6 Service Fees: Masculinity, Safer Sex, and Male Sex Work......Page 191 7 Conclusion: Every Man a Sex Worker? Commercial and Noncommercial Gay Sexuality......Page 224 Appendix 1 Data for the Analysis of Male Sex Work......Page 247 Appendix 2 A Simple Signaling Model......Page 253 Appendix 3 Measuring the Male Sex Worker Network......Page 264 Appendix 4 Empirical Estimates of Escort Valuation......Page 278 Appendix 5 Empirical Estimates of Self-Presentation......Page 284 Appendix 6 A Model of Sex Worker and Client Negotiation......Page 288 Notes......Page 299 References......Page 315 Index......Page 331