Satisfied or Bregret? Long-Term Implications of the Brexit Vote on Life Satisfaction

Wolfgang Maennig () and Niklas Rohde ()
Additional contact information
Wolfgang Maennig: Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg
Niklas Rohde: Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg

No 84, Working Papers from Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg

Abstract: We provide long-run regional evidence on how local support for Brexit is associated with post-referendum life satisfaction. Covering 348 UK local authorities from 2011 to 2022, we find that after the 2016 referendum higher district-level Leave vote shares are associated with relative increases in life satisfaction. These results are robust across alternative treatment definitions, dynamic specifications, regional sensitivity checks and controls for the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional analyses suggest that the association emerges immediately after the referendum, is stronger in structurally vulnerable districts, and is weaker in areas with stronger petition-based demand for reversing Brexit. The findings may be associated with a regional political “winner effect†and/or may reflect alignment between regional political preferences and the referendum outcome.

Keywords: Subjective Well-being; Brexit; Referendum; Regional Science (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 I31 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2026-07-02
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Hamburg Contemporary Economic Discussions, Issue 84, 2026

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.hced.uni-hamburg.de/WorkingPapers/HCED-084.pdf First Version, 2026 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hce:wpaper:084

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wolfgang Maennig ().