• AEA in the news
  • February 8, 2017

Barriers to migration bring heavy cost

People gather to meet with loved ones at the international border wall separating San Diego from Tijuana.

SherryVSmithVAB/Bigstock

New York Times columnist Eduardo Porter cited a 2011 Journal of Economic Perspectives paper in a piece about how President Trump’s move to bar immigrants from some predominantly Muslim countries will hurt the US economy. In “Economics and Emigration: Trillion-Dollar Bills on the Sidewalk?” author Michael Clemens argued that barriers to migration may be the single largest class of market distortions in the global economy and cost as much as $100 trillion annually.