The Brexit decade: the gap between expectations and reality

The 2016 referendum on the UK’s departure from the EU is widely considered to be a milestone event. The purpose of this article is to assess its multi-level impact, considering that a decade of data now allows economists to replace speculative forecasts with actual empirical indicators.

The UK economy in 2016 presented a generally satisfactory picture. However, the country’s participation in European institutions was always peculiar. Despite its active presence, London maintained a steady...