Brexit and the Cat

Ádám Török ()
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Ádám Török: University of Pannonia, Veszprém

Acta Oeconomica, 2016, vol. 66, issue supplement1, 5-19

Abstract: Erwin Schrödinger’s Cat model is a thought experiment from quantum mechanics to visualise “neither dead, nor alive” types of transitional situations. This essay draws certain parallels between this Cat and the Brexit process. A process that has been initiated but, in a strictly legal sense, not yet unleashed. It might be officially launched one day by the UK government, but without any certainty as to whether it would be completed at all. There seems to be no trade policy model, which would be optimal for both sides: keeping the UK within the Single European market for goods and capital, while introducing constraints on the free flow of labour is not a real option. A possible strategy for both parties may be procrastination: declaring that Brexit is underway, but maintaining the pre-2016 conditions of economic co-operation and integration, prolonging the current Cat-like situation.

Keywords: integration; Brexit; trade policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
Note: The author thanks Boglárka Konka for her very useful and dedicated research assistance. A caveat is due regarding the use of literature: this work could not be built on usual academic literature due to the short prehistory of Brexit. This is why no articles from academic journals have been used – the first ones on this topic can be expected later in 2016. Policy studies, expert papers, and think tank assessments provided the bulk of the literature background to this essay. And a curious coincidence: this paper was completed on the day when former British Prime Minister David Cameron surrendered his MP mandate (September 12, 2016).
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