Essays on Resilience and Economic Performance

This dissertation examines the dynamics between resilience and economic development, with a particular focus on how resilience interacts with different dimensions of economic performance. While resilience has gained increasing attention in both academic and policy debates, its role within long-term economic development remains to some extent underexplored. This thesis contributes to bridging this gap by investigating resilience from multiple perspectives, emphasizing the localized and context-dependent nature of resilience-building processes. The thesis begins with an introductory chapter (Chapter 1) which establishes the conceptual underpinnings of resilience, its multidimensional nature, and its intersections with economic development. In this work, resilience is not viewed only as a static ability to recover from shocks but rather as a dynamic and evolving process. The research builds on an evolutionary perspective of resilience, highlighting its interconnectedness with industrial structures, institutional frameworks, and sectoral adaptability. Rather than treating resilience as separate from other dimensions of economic development, such as growth and sustainability, this dissertation frames resilience as an integral component of these processes – shaping and shaped by patterns of structural change, employment and firm dynamics. Through three empirical studies, the thesis explores resilience at different levels of analysis, from regional economic structures to resilience related to a single sector, to firm-level resilience as reflected in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) adoption and performance. The first empirical chapter (Chapter 2) investigates the resilience of productivity and employment in European regions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It examines how industrial composition and reconfiguration influence regions' ability to sustain both productivity and employment levels under economic shocks. Using a novel resilience taxonomy and multinomial logit regression analysis, the study finds that related variety fosters joint resilience, while structural change predominantly supports employment resilience. The results underscore the importance of industrial adaptability in shaping regional resilience and highlight the synergies and trade-offs between productivity and employment resilience in different regional settings. The second empirical chapter (Chapter 3) shifts the focus to dynamics of employment resilience linked to the tourism sector, analyzing how different types of tourism development trajectories affect local labor responses to the Covid-19 shock. Employing Social Sequence Analysis (SSA), the study classifies municipalities into categories based on their levels of tourism specialization and the pressure exerted by tourism activities. It then examines how these trajectories influence both resistance to economic shocks and recovery patterns. The findings suggest that excessive dependence on tourism increases vulnerability, leading to sharper employment contractions, but it also facilitates faster recovery. In contrast, regions with moderate tourism specialization and controlled tourism pressures demonstrate stronger overall resilience. This study highlights the trade-offs within resilience itself – specifically, the tension between rapid recovery and long-term adaptability. It also contributes to the broader debate on sectoral resilience, emphasizing that strategic specialization – rather than mere diversification – is key to ensuring stable employment in economies highly reliant on a single sector. The third empirical chapter (Chapter 4) takes a different approach, examining resilience indirectly through the lens of CSR from a firm-level perspective. It analyzes the presence and performance of B-Corps in U.S. counties, which serve as a proxy for how socially and environmentally responsible firms may contribute to broader economic and social resilience. B-Corps, as businesses that integrate social and environmental objectives into their economic model, provide an avenue for exploring how institutional and demographic factors influence CSR-oriented business strategies. Using Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) and Weighted Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions, the study finds that progressive political orientation, workforce diversity, and certain socioeconomic conditions significantly shape both the establishment and performance of B-Corps. Notably, B-Corp presence is higher in areas with greater income inequality, suggesting that these firms may emerge as a response to economic disparities. The findings highlight how local institutional and demographic contexts shape corporate strategies, which in turn may contribute to broader social and economic adaptation processes. Taken together, the three empirical studies in this dissertation contribute to a more nuanced understanding of resilience as a process deeply embedded in local economic structures, sectoral characteristics, and institutional contexts. The findings reinforce the idea that resilience is not a uniform or one-size-fits-all concept but rather a dynamic and place-sensitive process shaped by structural and institutional configurations. By integrating resilience into the broader framework of economic development, this thesis advances both theoretical and empirical discussions, offering insights for policymakers on how to design resilience-enhancing strategies tailored to regional and sectoral specificities. While this dissertation provides valuable insights, it acknowledges certain limitations, including constraints related to data availability, the temporal scope of the analyses, and the focus on correlations rather than causation. Future research could explore causal pathways, extend the temporal horizon of resilience studies, and incorporate alternative empirical settings and methodological approaches. By advancing knowledge on the interplay between resilience and economic development, this thesis lays the foundation for further studies aimed at fostering more adaptive, inclusive and sustainable economic systems.