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The Brexit Referendum and Three Types of Regret

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  • Drinkwater, Stephen

    (University of Roehampton)

  • Jennings, Colin

    (King's College London)

Abstract

In this paper we examine three forms of regret in relation to the UK’s hugely significant referendum on EU membership that was held in June 2016. These are, (i) whether leave voters at the referendum subsequently regretted their choice (in the light of the result), (ii) whether non-voters regretted their decisions not to vote (remain) and (iii) whether individuals were more likely to indicate that it is everyone’s duty to vote following the referendum. We find evidence in favour of all three types of regret. In particular, leave voters and non-voters were significantly more likely to indicate that they would vote remain given their chance to do so again and there was a significant increase in the probability of an individual stating that it was everyone’s duty to vote in a general election in 2017 compared to 2015.

Suggested Citation

  • Drinkwater, Stephen & Jennings, Colin, 2021. "The Brexit Referendum and Three Types of Regret," IZA Discussion Papers 14589, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14589
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    Cited by:

    1. Drinkwater, Stephen & Blackaby, David H. & Robinson, Catherine, 2024. "What Mattered Most in the Brexit Vote? Evidence from Detailed Regression and Decomposition Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 16841, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    EU referendum; Brexit; voting; regret; non-voters;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • F60 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - General

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