New dawn fades: The post-referendum rise in import costs has hurt UK workers

a column by Rui Costa, Swati Dhingra and Stephen Machin for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

Some commentators argue that globalisation is systematically connected to the real-wage and productivity stagnation seen across the developed world.

This column analyses the relationship between international trade and worker outcomes in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit referendum, when the value of the sterling fell massively against other nations’ currencies. It finds that the rise in import costs from the sterling depreciation hurt wages and training.

This relative decline in real earnings of workers has reinforced pre-existing real-wage stagnation; UK workers have not fared well since the referendum price rise.

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Uncertainty and legal institutions: The impact of the Brexit vote on EU law application in the UK

a column by Arthur Dyevre, Monika Glavina, Nicolas Lampach, Michal Ovádek and Wessel Wijtvliet for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

Twenty-eight months after the Brexit referendum, EU laws, regulations, and doctrines continue to apply to UK residents and state officials.

This column shows that UK judges and litigants have already started to move away from EU law in anticipation of Brexit, with judges submitting 22–23% fewer questions to the European Court of Justice since the referendum. The broader lesson for the future of supranational legal systems is that effective disintegration may precede formal withdrawal, or may occur even if formal withdrawal is delayed or does not come about.

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