CEP Feature: "Business as usual? Unraveling the impact of Brexit on UK-EU business links"

• Zovanga Kone, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK 
• Feicheng Wang, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands 
• Zheng Wang, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK 
• Zhuo Zhou, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Shanghai, China 

     

ABSTRACT: We present the first systematic evidence on the impact of Brexit on the business links between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) through the lens of international visits. We find important asymmetry in the direction of changes in business visits between the two regions following the referendum. Specifically, we observe a significant drop in EU-to-UK trips, while UK-to-EU trips increased noticeably after the vote. These results support the claim that Brexit has made the UK less attractive to EU businesses, but also reveal that UK businesses are investing more in their relationships with EU partners to offset the uncertainty.