s The number of fortified borders around the world has risen precipitously. This surge in walls is an important part of the larger globalization “backlash,” as countries react to the unwanted consequences of economic openness and globalization, with a rise in illicit trade and smuggling being a prominent example. Despite the prominence of the idea that walls are built to combat illicit flows, no research systematically explores how walls generally affect illicit trade. This is a notable omission for at least two reasons. First, the most prominent explanations for wall construction put combating illicit trade front and center. Second, recent work that finds walls significantly reduce legal trade argues that this finding derives from border fortifications diverting illegal trade to ports of entry, which leads to more inspection, security, and transaction costs. We develop a new measure of illicit trade flows using over five decades of product-level data and provide a battery of evidence that shows border barriers increase illicit flows at ports of entry.

中文翻译：

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边境壁垒和非法贸易流动


世界各地的边境设防数量急剧增加。随着各国对经济开放和全球化带来的不良后果做出反应，围墙的增加是更大的全球化“反弹”的重要组成部分，非法贸易和走私的增加就是一个突出的例子。尽管修建隔离墙是为了打击非法流动的观点很突出，但没有研究系统地探讨隔离墙通常如何影响非法贸易。这是一个值得注意的遗漏，至少有两个原因。首先，对隔离墙建设最突出的解释是将打击非法贸易置于首要位置和中心位置。其次，最近的研究发现围墙显着减少了合法贸易，认为这一发现源于边境防御工事将非法贸易转移到入境口岸，从而导致更多的检查、安全和交易成本。我们利用五十多年的产品级数据制定了一种新的非法贸易流动衡量标准，并提供了一系列证据，表明边境壁垒增加了入境口岸的非法贸易流动。