Data Collection

This will surely be making the rounds, from Mahalanobis [thanks to BrianF for the pointers]:

From the Scottish Journal of Political Economy (Pricing Personal Services: An Empirical Study of Earnings in the UK Prostitution Industry): In late 1998, a website named Punternet was launched in the UK by an individual using the pseudonym 'Galahad'. The website's main purpose is an information exchange for clients. Clients are invited to submit 'reports' to the site on prostitutes whom they have recently encountered. The report is submitted pro-forma, and contains the location and duration of the encounter, the working-name and contact details of the provider, some information about her physical attributes and personality, a description of the services rendered, and, most crucially, the price paid. <> The data set generated by this website presents us with a rare opportunity to identify the factors which determine the price paid to a provider for their services.

At the same time, a bunch of MPs in Canada are proposing a massive, long junket to Sweden, the Netherlands, and Nevada, to study the different possible schemes for decriminalizing prostitution in Canada. I wonder what type of research they have in mind that they cannot do from their offices...

To read more on the possible decriminalization of prostitution in Canada, see this and this.