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What Does Google Trends Tell Us about the Impact of Brexit on the Unemployment Rate in the UK?

Author

Listed:
  • Mihaela Simionescu

    (Institute for Economic Forecasting of the Romanian Academy, 050711 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Dalia Streimikiene

    (Lithuanian Institute of Agrarian Economics, 03220 Vilnius, Lithuania)

  • Wadim Strielkowski

    (Department of Trade and Finance, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, 165 000 Prague, Czech Republic)

Abstract

Considering the debate related to the potential effects of Brexit on the UK economy, the aim of this paper is to assess the impact of Brexit on the monthly unemployment rate since the vote for the UK leave from the European Union. This is one of the most important indicators of sustainable development for the country. The novelty of this research is given by the use of microdata to reflect the political instability brought by Brexit, with Google Trends being the tool for collecting the data. Moreover, the data for the four countries that compose the UK are considered (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales) in a panel data and multilevel framework. The results are consistent with the analysis of important macroeconomic indicators and indicate that Brexit concerns decreased the unemployment rate in the period June 2016–March 2019, with few arguments being provided for this. The state policies should encourage the investment in order to support the future economic growth and sustainable development of the UK.

Suggested Citation

  • Mihaela Simionescu & Dalia Streimikiene & Wadim Strielkowski, 2020. "What Does Google Trends Tell Us about the Impact of Brexit on the Unemployment Rate in the UK?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-10, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:3:p:1011-:d:314780
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Phi-Hung Nguyen & Jung-Fa Tsai & Ihsan Erdem Kayral & Ming-Hua Lin, 2021. "Unemployment Rates Forecasting with Grey-Based Models in the Post-COVID-19 Period: A Case Study from Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-27, July.
    3. Simionescu, Mihaela & Cifuentes-Faura, Javier, 2022. "Can unemployment forecasts based on Google Trends help government design better policies? An investigation based on Spain and Portugal," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 1-21.
    4. Rodrigo Mulero & Alfredo Garcia-Hiernaux, 2023. "Forecasting unemployment with Google Trends: age, gender and digital divide," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(2), pages 587-605, August.

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