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Economic Resilience in Regional Science: Research Needs and Future Applications

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Regional Research Frontiers - Vol. 1

Part of the book series: Advances in Spatial Science ((ADVSPATIAL))

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.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Research on resilience is split into two camps. About half of the researchers view resilience as any action that can reduce losses from disaster, ranging from pre-disaster mitigation to post-disaster recovery. Not surprisingly, this group is dominated by engineers, whose work is primarily in the area of mitigation (see, e.g., Bruneau et al. 2003; Haimes 2006). The other camp focuses on resilience as actions following the onset of a disaster. Steps can be taken to enhance resilience before a disaster strikes, acknowledging that resilience is very much a process, but such actions are usually not implemented until afterward (e.g., stockpiling of critical materials, development of emergency plans). Recent events, such as the World Trade Center attacks and Hurricane Katrina, indicate that BI during disaster recovery can be as large as or larger than property damage. We focus on the second approach, noting that much of our analysis is applicable to mitigation as well without much modification.

  2. 2.

    Most of the resilience tactics associated with businesses are applicable to government and household operations as well, with some modification (see Rose 2009).

  3. 3.

    Problems of spillovers of disasters across political boundaries are beyond the scope of this volume. However, advances are being made in interjurisdictional cooperation to deal with them, including an application of resilience tactics (Rose and Kustra 2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Price School of Public Policy, and Faulty Affiliate, Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE), University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Adam Rose

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  1. Adam Rose
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA

    Randall Jackson

  2. Division of Resource Economics and Management, Faculty Research Associate, Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA

    Peter Schaeffer

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Rose, A. (2017). Economic Resilience in Regional Science: Research Needs and Future Applications. In: Jackson, R., Schaeffer, P. (eds) Regional Research Frontiers - Vol. 1. Advances in Spatial Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50547-3_15

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