Business bookshelf: Should Britain take a 'Clean Brexit'?

Liam Halligan and Gerard Lyons, Biteback, 382 pages, $26.40. Sixteen months after Britain voted to leave the European Union, the political debate seems as intense as ever. Liam Halligan and Gerard Lyons, two pro-Brexit economists, do better than most in advancing the debate in "Clean Brexit." The choices for them are not between a hard or soft break but between clean (meaning fully out of the E.U. and its single market) and messy (meaning a half-in, half-out position akin to those of Norway or Switzerland). During the campaign many Brexiteers insisted there would be no question of leaving the single market. Even now, though, some favor joining Norway in the European Economic Area (EEA), whose members are in that market. Halligan and Lyons prefer the mantra of Prime Minister Theresa May, that Brexit means taking back control of laws, borders and money. Unlike some hard-liners, they acknowledge short-term economic costs. But they note that 90 percent of future global growth will be outside the E.U., and they have hopes of a string of free-trade deals to benefit from this. Better (and less) regulation and an escape from European protectionism could thus promote a genuinely global Britain. It is an attractive vision. But it is not clear exactly how E.U. (or EEA) membership stands in its way. Germany exports four times as much as Britain to China. Moreover, many of the ills that the authors want to cure — low productivity, inadequate training, a dysfunctional housing market, poor infrastructure — have little to do with E.U. membership. It is hard to see how Brexit will help them.