Economist:
Most economists say Brexit will hurt the economy ? but one disagrees
24 August 2017
Patick Minford thinks that GDP could increase by 6.8%
Mr Minford’s calculations are based on dubious assumptions. He also ignores the “gravity” effect, whereby close neighbours trade more with each other. He reckons any fall in trade with the EU will automatically be made up elsewhere. He attributes all the rise in Britain’s trade with the EU since it joined in 1973 to trade diversion, not trade creation, ignoring evidence to the contrary. And he says all price differences are caused by protection, whereas most reflect differing quality or regulatory standards. Swati Dhingra and her colleagues at the London School of Economics have used their Brexit model to recalculate the gains of unilateral free trade. It reduces the loss from a hard Brexit, but only slightly, from 2.6% of GDP to 2.3%.