In the human sciences, researchers continue to investigate the impacts of globalization, where many issues that had previously been considered settled are being revisited, and researchers are nearing answers in other fields where they had not before. Throughout the post-war Twentieth Century, the vast majority of economists viewed globalization, or the interdependence within and reduction in restrictions upon global trade, as a positive. They believed that it would benefit developing countries and allow for economies of scale and specialization.

Public sentiment had long not been aligned with this, but globalization happened nonetheless. However, throughout the past decade, new economic research has revealed a far more mixed result from globalization, and this research continues to take place. Much of what economists have found has been a negative effect on developed countries' middle classes' income, with the wealthiest global elites and the new middle classes of the developing world benefiting the most.

Nonetheless, this process of globalization has already largely taken place. Now, economists do not yet adequately understand what might happen if it were to be reversed, either through tariffs and other policy changes, or through voluntary nearshoring by corporations. Generally, they believe that this process will increase prices for the developed world, but will also likely increase job opportunities and wages for developed nations' middle classes. Thus, economists have yet to determine whether or not this tradeoff will be worth it, and this field continues to be researched, as do many others within the human sciences.