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Immobility and the Brexit vote

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  • Lee, Neil
  • Morris, Katy
  • Kemeny, Thomas

Abstract

Popular explanations of the Brexit vote have centred on the division between cosmopolitan internationalists who voted Remain, and geographically rooted individuals who voted Leave. In this paper, we conduct the first empirical test of whether residential immobility – the concept underpinning this distinction – was an important variable in the Brexit vote. We find that locally rooted individuals – defined as those living in their county of birth – were 7 percent more likely to vote Leave. However, the impact of immobility was filtered by local circumstances: immobility only mattered for respondents in areas experiencing relative economic decline or increases in migrant populations

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, Neil & Morris, Katy & Kemeny, Thomas, 2018. "Immobility and the Brexit vote," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 86367, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:86367
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Brexit; globalisation; mobility; populism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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