Rethinking the Influencing Factors of Economic Resilience Under the COVID-19 Pandemic

Along with globalization, frequent and cross-regional transportation has driven the prosperity and development of cities worldwide. Nevertheless, the high density and concentration of urban activities also bring spatial heterogeneity to different cities. Previous research, focusing mainly on the impact of the financial crisis, has indicated that the characteristics of urban zones influence its performance of economic resilience. However, the development duration type and severity of various shocks may differ. This study, based on the perspectives of the COVID-19 pandemic, reviews the effect of various influencing factors, such as the ratio of manufacturing industry, population mobility, investment in R&D by the industries and the completeness of public facilities, on the effect of a shock on economic resilience. The economic resilience of each research target area during the pandemic of 2020 is calculated by applying the index of economic resilience estimated by the changes in consumptions and the analysis of Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, revealing that a city with a higher ratio of manufacturing industry and investment in R&D has better economic resilience. Conversely, cities with greater population mobility and more areas of public facilities reveal the weakness of economic resilience during the pandemic. Researchers believe that the collapse in consumption of the cities caused by citizens avoiding exposure risks has influenced economic performance. This work shows that the factors of economic resilience vary from shocks. Consequently, policymakers must address the features of shocks when developing relevant policies in response to the shocks.