Will Economists have the laugh last over Brexit?

When Brexit comes we shall see one of the more extraordinary experiments in economic policy: a country deliberately raising trade barriers against its own exports by re-erecting non-tariff and tariff barriers that had been dismantled over many years. We do not yet know how far this exercise in self-flagellation will be taken, but economics does have solid theory and practical ways of measuring impacts which demonstrate that the creation of trade barriers inflicts costs which ultimately reduce living standards below what they would have otherwise been.