January 8, 2025

SOEP Brown Bag Seminar

Levelling up by levelling down: The economic and political costs of Brexit (with Eleonora Alabrese, Thiemo Fetzer, and Shizhuo Wang)

Date

January 8, 2025
12:30-13:30

Location

Karl Popper Room
DIW Berlin
Room 2.3.020
Mohrenstr. 58
10117 Berlin

Speakers

Jacob Edenhofer, University of Oxford/Nuffield College

The study uses a synthetic control method to estimate the local economic cost of Brexit. The vast majority of regions in the UK have lost as a result of Brexit. Since losses tend to be concentrated in relatively prosperous regions, Brexit has reduced regional inequalities (“levelling up“) while pushing down national output (“levelling down“ in the aggregate). Using both aggregate data from local elections and individual-level survey data from the British Election Study, we find that, politically, those areas that experienced Brexit-related output losses saw increases in support for right-wing populist parties, while the electoral fortunes of the Labour party declined.

Topics: Europe

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