Discussion paper

DP14040 The geography of EU discontent

Support for parties opposed to EU-integration has risen rapidly and a wave of discontent has taken over the EU. This discontent is purportedly driven by the very factors behind the surge of populism: differences in age, wealth, education, or economic and demographic trajectories. This paper maps the geography of EU discontent across more than 63,000 electoral districts in the EU-28 and assesses which factors push anti-EU voting. The results show that anti-EU vote is mainly a consequence of local economic and industrial decline in combination with lower employment and a less educated workforce. Many of the other suggested causes of discontent, by contrast, matter less than expected or their impact varies depending on levels of opposition to European integration.

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Citation

Dijkstra, L, H Poelman and A Rodríguez-Pose (2019), ‘DP14040 The geography of EU discontent‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 14040. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp14040