The economic resilience of a city: the effect of relatedness on the survival of amenity shops during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Amenity clusters consisting of coffee shops, restaurants and other small businesses improve urban life and are a source of employment for city dwellers. Although most small business clusters were hit hard by restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, some were able to adapt. What determines the economic resilience of amenity clusters? Using store-location data for Seoul from 2016 to 2021, we identify spatial clusters of amenities, and from that build an amenity space to examine the effect of relatedness on the resilience of each cluster. We find that businesses are more likely to survive when located in clusters of related amenities.