Northern Ireland and the economic consequences of Brexit revisited
The “best of both worlds” or a lost decade?
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24239233 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Graham Brownlow (0000-0001-5715-5431, Queen's University Belfast), Leslie Budd (0000-0002-5679-0350, The Open University Business School) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2026-12-31 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Contemporary Social Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2158-2041 • E-ISSN: 2158-205X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/21582041.2026.2740641 |
| OpenAlex | W7222809151 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 43 |
Recent quantitative work has suggested that Brexit's macroeconomic damage is traceable to its effects on uncertainty, particularly as it reduces investment. Brexit has, in addition, had particular place-based economic consequences in Northern Ireland (NI). This article applies a variety of concepts to try and disentangle why NI has experienced these place-based effects. The application of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) – as it relates to supply chains – for instance, provides some useful insights regarding the “border in the Irish Sea”. In the regional context, Brexit has compounded pre-existing institutional-economic weaknesses: uncertainty associated with the legacy of violence and underperformance in the operation of devolution have contributed to NI's inadequate investment, innovation and productivity. The place-based economic analysis suggests that policy approaches should focus on the fact that NI shares UK-wide weaknesses: in addition, the region features that are magnified versions of UK problems as well as problems unique to it.
Brexit · Devolution · Economic growth · economic impact · Northern ireland · European Socioeconomic and Political Studies · Irish and British Studies · Regional resilience and development
Homo Oeconomicus and His Class Mates
Brexit and the Political Economy of Ireland
The Case for Regional Development Intervention
Organizational Boundaries and Theories of Organization
A place-based developmental regional industrial strategy for sustainable capture of co-created value
All at Sea? Externalities and Cargo Diversion in the Wake of Brexit
Transatlantic lessons from Bidenomics place-based policies
The ‘cost of undoing Europe’
Northern Ireland and the Economic Consequences of Brexit
Brexit, trade and UK advanced manufacturing sectors
Beyond levelling up
Practice running ahead of theory? Political economy and the economic lessons of UK devolution
A critical review of the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy
Should the fiscal powers of the Northern Ireland Assembly be enhanced
Place-based industrial strategies in the context of the Northern Ireland Protocol
The impact of the new Northern Ireland protocol
Conflicts in National Economic Objectives
Britain and the Common Market
Sense making of Brexit for economic citizenship in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Border Ireland
The Golden Age of Economic Growth in Postwar Europe
Brexit
Fluctuations in Uncertainty
The Irish economy during the century after partition
| Highly cited | No |
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