College
College of Business Administration
Date of Last Revision
2026-02-26 11:47:47
Major
Business Data Analytics
Honors Course
ECON 496
Number of Credits
3
Degree Name
Bachelor of Business Administration
Date of Expected Graduation
Spring 2026
Abstract
The United Kingdom formally left the European Union in 2020, a significant event known as Brexit. The separation caused political and economic consequences for the UK, particularly affecting trade flows in and out of the country. However, the extent of these impacts both in the short and long term-remains uncertain. This paper analyzes the impact of Brexit on exports and imports for the United Kingdom and the rest of the EU. The study also looks at industry-specific data, giving a detailed perspective on sectors that experienced the biggest consequences of the event. The World International Trade Solution (WITS) by the World Bank provides data for all the countries in this study from 2007-2023. This allows a two-way fixed effects difference-in difference model to see the effects of imports, exports and total trade flow on a per capita basis. The regression controls for country, product, and year fixed effect, and clusters standard error at the country level. The results indicate that Brexit had a significant negative impact on trade flows on the UK and the European Union. Across both linear and log-linear models, there was a decline in imports, exports, and total trade after the 2016 vote to leave the EU. In the log-linear model, total trade saw a decline of 13%. The product level analysis finds that food and agricultural goods, materials and fuels, chemicals and related goods, and transportation-related products saw significant decrease in trade. These findings suggest that Brexit caused a significant decline in trade activity for the UK and the EU.
Research Sponsor
Dr. Sucharita Ghosh
First Reader
Dr. Sucharita Ghosh
Second Reader
Dr. Ali Enami
Honors Faculty Advisor
Dr. Ali Enami
Proprietary and/or Confidential Information
No
Community Engaged Scholarship
No
Recommended Citation
Shean, Tyler J., "The Impact of Brexit on UK Trade Flows: A Product-Level Analysis" (2026). Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 2092.
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/2092