The Impact of Brexit Uncertainty on FDI-related New Jobs in Northern Ireland. Department for the Economy, October 2019

It is widely acknowledged that the certainty of the business environment plays an important role on investment decisions including inward investment by foreign investors. Following the vote on the UK’s EU exit in June 2016, concerns have been raised by the business community in relation to the negative impact uncertainty would have on investment and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the UK. Recent research published by the Bank of England reports that business uncertainty has increased significantly3 following the outcome of the referendum on the UK’s EU exit and that this uncertainty has caused a decline of investment by UK firms by 11% relative to what investment would have been otherwise over the three years after the June 2016 vote (Bloom et al. 2019). Furthermore, this research finds that the most exposed to this uncertainty are firms in industries which trade more with the EU.