We analyse the voting pattern in the June 23 rd referendum on the continued participation of the United Kingdom in the European Union and evaluate the reasons for the results. We find that output, education and the share of older people at the regional level can explain attitudes towards immigrants and the European Union. Thus, regions where GDP per capita is low, a high proportion of people has low education, a high proportion is over the age of 65 and there is strong net immigration are more likely to be apprehensive of the European Union, be suspicious of immigrants and not want them as neighbours and, most importantly, to vote for Brexit. The fear of immigration does not seem to be fully justified in terms of the literature on the labour market effects of immigrants in the UK. Using the British Election Study we find similar results. Thus negative attitudes towards immigration and EU enlargement are correlated with voting for Brexit using data on individuals.

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ÁgripVið könnum reynslu Íslands af fjármagnshöftum með áherslu á áhrif vaxtabreytinga á gengi krónunnar frá 2009 til 2015. Niðurstöður benda til þess að áhrif vaxtabreytinga einskorðist við árið 2009 en þá var eftirlit með fjármagnshöftum lítið. Ekki er unnt að finna marktaek áhrif vaxtabreytinga eftir að eftirlit með fjármagnshöftum var eflt í nóvember 2009. Taka verður fram að þessar niðurstöður byggja á þeim varkáru breytingum vaxta sem urðu á þessum árum. Jafnframt er ljóst að vextir hafa önnur áhrif en á gengi, t.d. á heildareftirspurn og launaþróun. AbstractWe study Iceland's experience with capital controls, in particular whether changes in the central bank's policy rate affected the exchange rate under the capital control regime from 2009 to 2015.We find that both actual changes and unexpected changes in interest rates may have affected the exchange rate when the year 2009 is included in a sample that ends in August of 2015, but not when it is excluded. This early period was characterized by lax capital controls until November of 2009. It follows that, based on the experience of the moderate changes of interest rates observed in the data, changes in interest rates may affect the exchange rate when capital controls are not effectively enforced but will have a small, if any, effect when they are enforced. It should be noted that the results are based on the experience of moderate interest rate changes during this period. Moreover, interest rates affect other variables, such as aggregate demand and the rate of wage inflation. JEL flokkun: G01, E42, E52, E58

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