In a questionnaire survey of the UK chemical manufacturing industry, this report investigates the views of these companies on economic and monetary integration of Europe.
More specifically, the question of whether or not these companies would like to see a UK membership of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is asked, following a more thorough questioning aimed at examining the underlying reasoning behind their viewpoints.
The findings show a two-to-one majority on the side of a positive stance towards a UK participation in this final stage of integration of the European marketplace, and support theory in its belief that strong incentives for such a view include removal of exchange rate uncertainty, and elimination of transaction costs.
Additionally, and also in accordance with the collected theoretical framework, larger companies, and companies with high levels of exports, are found to have a greater desire for a UK EMU membership.
Findings in contrast with theory include that of a lack of correlation between high levels of imports and a desire for integration, as well as a lack of belief in increased inflow of foreign investment as a prospective benefit of membership in the questioned population.
Correlations found between the main question and the removal of exchange rate uncertainty and elimination of transaction costs were very strong, but positive statistical determination for the absence of chance in creating the associations could not be made, due to the small scale of the survey, creating response alternatives with less than five accumulated responses
Source: Halmstad University
Author: Bonat, Fredrik | Lindh, Olof