Scottish independence would be 2-3 times more costly than Brexit, and rejoining the EU won’t make up the difference

In this blog, Hanwei Huang, Thomas Sampson and Patrick Schneider (LSE) analyse the economics of Scottish independence by looking at its impact on trade. Independence would put a new border between Scotland and the rest of the UK, introducing new trade costs. They find that since the rest of the UK is Scotland’s largest trading partner, the impact of independence would be 2-3 times greater than that of Brexit, and rejoining the EU wouldn’t make up the difference.