Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo

Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University

Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University

College of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics

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 relation- ship, 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 in- crease in child trafficking.