IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/evoice/v16y2019i1p14n14.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

No Longer “The Economy Stupid”: How Muddled Economics Contributed to a Chaotic Brexit

Author

Listed:
  • Begg Iain

    (European Institute, London School of Economics, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)

Abstract

The Faustian bargain at the heart of Brexit can be portrayed as a trade-off between enhanced control and economic benefits. Most commentators expect the UK economy to take some sort of hit from leaving the UK, but in the words of one prominent ‘leave’ supporter, it would be a ‘price worth paying’, to regain control over decision-making.https://www.politicshome.com/news/europe/eu-institutions/news/73963/arron-banks-%C2%A34300-loss-price-worth-paying-brexit. For convinced Brexiteers, a UK unshackled from the EU will rapidly transform itself to be able to take advantage of opportunities in emerging markets and other dynamic parts of the global economy, while ‘remainers’ see distancing the UK from its largest market as an egregious act of self-harm. Both sides have been culpable of misleading statements. Similar dissembling occurred in relation to the public finances. The article explores how competing, poorly understood and often incoherent interpretations of economic propositions fed into Brexit, leading to misguided policy decisions and confusion in the debates around how to reset the UK’s economic relationship with the EU.

Suggested Citation

  • Begg Iain, 2019. "No Longer “The Economy Stupid”: How Muddled Economics Contributed to a Chaotic Brexit," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 1-14, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:evoice:v:16:y:2019:i:1:p:14:n:14
    DOI: 10.1515/ev-2019-0030
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/ev-2019-0030
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/ev-2019-0030?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ebell, Monique, 2016. "Assessing the Impact of Trade Agreements on Trade," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 238, pages 31-42, November.
    2. Gabriel Felbermayr & Jasmin Gröschl & Marina Steininger, 2022. "Quantifying Brexit: from ex post to ex ante using structural gravity," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 158(2), pages 401-465, May.
    3. Graham Gudgin & Ken Coutts & Neil Gibson & Jordan Buchanan, 2017. "The Role of Gravity Models in Estimating the Economic Impact of Brexit," GEE Papers 0077, Gabinete de Estratégia e Estudos, Ministério da Economia, revised Aug 2017.
    4. Begg, Iain, 2017. "Making sense of the costs and benefits of Brexit: challenges for economists," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 83587, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Iain Begg, 2017. "Making Sense of the Costs and Benefits of Brexit: Challenges for Economists," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 45(3), pages 299-315, September.
    6. Thomas Sampson, 2017. "Brexit: The Economics of International Disintegration," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 163-184, Fall.
    7. Ansgar Belke & Daniel Gros, 2017. "The Economic Impact of Brexit: Evidence from Modelling Free Trade Agreements," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 45(3), pages 317-331, September.
    8. Martina Lawless & Edgar L. W. Morgenroth, 2019. "The product and sector level impact of a hard Brexit across the EU," Contemporary Social Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 189-207, April.
    9. Ben Rosamond, 2019. "Brexit and the Politics of UK Growth Models," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 408-421, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Campos, Nauro F., 2019. "B for Brexit: A Survey of the Economics Academic Literature," IZA Discussion Papers 12134, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Petros E. Ioannatos, 2021. "Brexit or Euro for the UK? Evidence from Panel Data," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 63(1), pages 117-138, March.
    3. Bergin, Adele & Economides, Philip & Garcia-Rodriguez, Abian & Murphy, Gavin, 2019. "Ireland and Brexit: modelling the impact of deal and no-deal scenarios," Quarterly Economic Commentary: Special Articles, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    4. Patrick Bisciari, 2019. "A survey of the long-term impact of Brexit on the UK and the EU27 economies," Working Paper Research 366, National Bank of Belgium.
    5. Polyzos, Stathis & Samitas, Aristeidis & Katsaiti, Marina-Selini, 2020. "Who is unhappy for Brexit? A machine-learning, agent-based study on financial instability," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    6. Harald Oberhofer & Michael Pfaffermayr, 2021. "Estimating the trade and welfare effects of Brexit: A panel data structural gravity model," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(1), pages 338-375, February.
    7. Ruiz Estrada Mario Arturo & Evangelos Koutronas & Donghyun Park, 2019. "The economic Gordian Knot of Brexit: an East and Southeast Asian perspective," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(6), pages 2797-2820, November.
    8. Rolf J. Langhammer & Lisandra Flach & Feodora Teti & Lena Wiest & Margherita Atzei & Lisa Scheckenhofer & Joachim Wuermeling & Carsten Hefeker & Friedemann Kainer & Philipp Harms & Michael Kaeding, 2020. "Down to the Wire: The Struggle for a Brexit Deal," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 73(12), pages 03-27, December.
    9. Naser Makarem & Harjinder Singh & Nigar Sultana & Darren Henderson, 2023. "Policy uncertainty and real activities manipulation: evidence from Brexit," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 1415-1440, November.
    10. Lawless, Martina, 2018. "Irish-UK Services Trade and Brexit," Papers WP595, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    11. Gabriel J. Felbermayr, 2019. "Brexit: A Hard-but-Smart Strategy and Its Consequences," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 54(3), pages 178-183, May.
    12. Portuese, Aurelien, 2018. "Towards a Meta Cost-benefit Analysis: The Case of Brexit," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 19(1), June.
    13. Laura M. Werner, 2020. "Hysteresis losses in the Preisach framework," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1249-1278, March.
    14. Nogues, Julio, 2018. "Brexit trade impacts and Mercosur's negotiations with Europe," MPRA Paper 87416, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Lisandra Flach & Feodora Teti & Lena Wiest & Margherita Atzei, 2020. "EU27 and the UK: Product Dependencies and the Implications of Brexit," EconPol Policy Brief 32, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    16. J., Julio, 2019. "Brexit trade impacts' and Mercosur's negotiations with Europe," MPRA Paper 94885, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Hagemejer, Jan & Dunin-Wasowicz, Maria & Michalek, Jan & Szyszka, Jacek, 2020. "Trade-related effects of Brexit. Implications for Central and Eastern Europe," Conference papers 333187, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    18. Latorre, María C. & Olekseyuk, Zoryana & Yonezawa, Hidemichi & Robinson, Sherman, 2020. "Making sense of Brexit losses: An in-depth review of macroeconomic studies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 72-87.
    19. Andrikopoulos, Athanasios & Dassiou, Xeni & Zheng, Min, 2020. "Exchange-rate exposure and Brexit: The case of FTSE, DAX and IBEX," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    20. Andrei HREBENCIUC, 2017. "The costs of Brexit for UK economy," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(2(611), S), pages 319-327, Summer.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:evoice:v:16:y:2019:i:1:p:14:n:14. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.