Economic resilience in regional science: Research needs and future applications

Abstract

The frequency and magnitude of disasters are increasing throughout the world. With few exceptions their major impacts are typically limited to the regional level. Disasters can threaten the survival of regional economies, as witnessed in recent years following Hurricane Katrina, the Wenchuan earthquake, and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. Predictions of future disasters are even more dire, especially with regard to climate change and terrorism. Resilience, broadly defined, refers to the ability to withstand and recover rapidly from such short-term and long-term threats. This chapter examines the important dimensions of economic resilience in relation to regional science. Recent advances in defining and measuring this concept have overcome the criticism that resilience is a vacuous buzzword. Still, much work needs to be done to understand regional resilience, make it more relevant to regional research and practice, make its implementation more cost-effective, and make it applicable to a broader set of future disasters. This chapter focuses on key topics related to regional economic resilience, including: its key dimensions, spatial aspects, behavioral aspects, how it differs between regional and national economies, measurement of cost-effectiveness of alternative resilience tactics and strategies, and the relationship between resilience, adaptation and sustainability. The chapter concludes with a discussion of future research with an eye to solidifying the foundations of regional economic resilience and the identification of future research challenges.