Regional disparities in economic resilience in the European Union across the urban–rural divide

Abstract

The differences in regional economic resilience and the drivers of resilience across the urban–rural hierarchy in the European Union are explored empirically in this paper. Three different resilience indicators are computed based on employment changes. Multilevel logistic and multinomial regression models indicate that the resilience of NUTS-3 regions is strongly affected by national borders; the highest country effects are observed for rural areas. Migration has the greatest positive effect on regional resilience across the urban–rural hierarchy. Agriculture contributes positively to the economic resilience of intermediate and rural regions. Statistically significant spatial patterns of regional resilience are found throughout the EU-27.