Behavioural Economics on Brexit Policy Decision

This study seeks to analyse whether British electors were framed by social media to leave the European Union. Economic experts believed that the result of the referendum would have been to remain in the EuropeanUnion because of the economics benefits. However, June 23, 2016,marked the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, and economic theories could not explain this outcome as this violated the assumption that the voting agentseeksthe highest economic benefit. To understand the reasons for the British decision regarding the referendum, this research turned to behavioural economics. Furthermore, this study analysed the usage of social media during the Brexit campaign, in particularthe relevance of Twitter, Facebook, and newspapers on the Brexit campaign. The impact of social media usage on the British population was analysed through probit models and interpreted with a literature review of heuristics and biases that may help understand why people behave contrarily to what is expected.Our analysis around 1399 responded reveals that, those who vote leave the EU tend to have few or no academic qualifications, to have lower-income jobs and to be in average 54 year old.