Giving Compass' Take:

• Researchers report how border walls have real negative economic effects, some of which may be unintended.

• What are possible ways for donors to get involved addressing the border crisis? 

• Learn about the effects of the border wall on local environments. 

Three decades ago, the world was home to fewer than a dozen border walls. Now, their numbers have swelled to more than 50. In a supposed era of openness and collaboration, why are these structures not only persisting, but also proliferating?

“Border walls are a symbol of the backlash against economic integration and globalization,” says Paul Poast, an associate professor at the University of Chicago who studies international security using quantitative analysis. “Many argue that such backlash is what led to Brexit and to Donald Trump’s election.

“What our study indicates is that walls also produce material consequences, reducing legal trade as well as illicit activity.”

Using economic models, Poast and political scientist David Carter of Washington University in St. Louis examined how physical walls reduce trade between neighboring countries—discovering reductions in median imports and exports of as much as 31%.

Previous research has found that in most instances, a wealthier state constructs a wall to slow or block the flow of goods and people from a poorer neighbor. Using data from 1800 to 2014, an earlier study from Poast and Carter observed that economic disparities between two states were a stronger predictor for wall-building than other factors including fear of attack.

Read the full article about border walls and global trade by Jack Wang at Futurity.