Trade connections’ effect on European regions’ interest in Brexit

The European Union’s deepening of international economic integration might be expected to correspondingly increase interest in policy (and news) related to trade partners. The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the organization through invocation of Article 50 offers a particularly clear case for such potential effects, since it directly implicates the relevant economic ties. Yet, evidence from Google searches shows no such effect: European regions that particularly rely on trade with the United Kingdom devote no greater share of their search requests to Brexit-related topics, whether because the public is unaware of local trade linkages or uninterested in the other parties involved.