Examining the determinants of child trafficking

• Project/Area Number: 23K12461
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 07040:Economic policy-related
• Research Institution: Hitotsubashi University
• Principal Investigator: Li Yanjun 一橋大学, 社会科学高等研究院, 特任講師 (60972742)
• Project Period (FY): 2023-04-01 – 2027-03-31
• Project Status: Granted (Fiscal Year 2023)
• Budget Amount: ¥4,550,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,050,000); Fiscal Year 2026: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000); Fiscal Year 2025: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000); Fiscal Year 2024: ¥520,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥120,000); Fiscal Year 2023: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
• Keywords: Child trafficking / Expressway / University expansion / Land reform

Outline of Research at the Start

This research aims to examine various determinants of the occurrence of child trafficking. Trafficking in children is a severe humanitarian problem that damages social harmony and leads to considerable tragedy. We propose a novel and national-representative dataset of incidents of child trafficking by scraping the posts on the website Baby Come Back Home (BCBH). This research consists of three projects; each links the trafficking to the following variables: (1) China’s highway routes between 1998 and 2013; (2) educational infrastructure; (3) the 1978-84 land reform in China.