Boschma R. Towards an evolutionary perspective on regional resilience, Regional Studies. This paper proposes an evolutionary perspective on regional resilience. It conceptualizes resilience not just as the ability of a region to accommodate shocks, but extends it to the long-term ability of regions to develop new growth paths. A comprehensive view on regional resilience is proposed in which history is key to understand how regions develop new growth paths, and in which industrial, network and institutional dimensions of resilience come together. Resilient regions are capable of overcoming a trade-off between adaptation and adaptability, as embodied in related and unrelated variety, loosely coupled networks and loosely coherent institutional structures.

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Towards an Evolutionary Perspective on Regional Resilience

This book presents the report on the European economic system, which was submitted to the President of the European Commission in July 2003. The report is divided into three parts. The first contains an assessment of the economic performance in terms of growth, stability, and cohesion. The second explores the challenges facing the European Union. The third presents a series of policy recommendations for the future.

An Agenda for a Growing Europe: The Sapir Report

This paper proposes an evolutionary perspective on regional resilience. We conceptualize resilience not just as the ability of a region to accommodate shocks, but we extend it to the long-term ability of regions to develop new growth paths. We propose a comprehensive view on regional resilience, in which history is key to understand how regions develop new growth paths, and in which industrial, network and institutional dimensions of resilience come together. Resilient regions are capable of overcoming a trade-off between adaptation and adaptability, as embodied in their industrial (related and unrelated variety), network (open, loosely coupled) and institutional (loosely coherent) structures.

Towards an evolutionary perspective on regional resilience

1. Overview 2. Conceptual framework PART I - ASSESSMENT 3. Policy implementation 4. Economic performance: growth, stability and cohesion 5. Economic trade-offs 6. Economic governance in the EU PART II - CHALLENGES 7. Is the European model sustainable? 8. Making a bigger Europe work 9. Europe and the world PART III - RECOMMENDATIONS 10. Principles 11. Policies for promoting growth 12. Modes of delivery: governance methods and the budget

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This article uses both a systematic literature search and co-citation analysis to investigate the specific research domains of organizational resilience and its strategic and operational management to understand the current state of development and future research directions. The research stream on the organizational and operational management of resilience is distant from its infancy, but it can still be considered to be in a developing phase. We found evidence that the academic literature has reached a shared consensus on the definition of resilience, foundations, and characteristics and that in recent years, the main subfield of research has been supply chain resilience. Nevertheless, the literature is still far from reaching consensus on the implementation of resilience, i.e., how to reach operational resilience and how to create and maintain resilient processes. Finally, based on the results of in-depth co-citation and literature analysis, we found seven fruitful future research directions on strategic, organizational and operational resilience.

Strategic and operational management of organizational resilience: Current state of research and future directions

The paper draws on the concept of regional resilience to examine the impact of the 2008–2010 downturn across regions in Europe. It finds that correlations between resilience and regional strength/fragility varied between countries in both 2009 and 2010, that resilience was weaker in manufacturing regions in 2009 but not 2010 and that the resilience of regions with high rates of construction employment was mainly low in regions affected by asset bubbles. Fiscal stimulus and tightening packages in 2008–2012 are shown to have regional dimensions in many countries but their regional impact varies, depending on political decisions and existing institutional frameworks.

Regional resilience in the 2008–2010 downturn: comparative evidence from European countries

Williamson (1965) argued that catching up countries experiencing strong national growth tend also to see a widening in regional disparities, whereas in more developed economies strong national growth and falling regional disparities could go hand in hand. We find some evidence of a trade-off between national growth and regional dispersion in the EU's Cohesion countries, notably in Spain and Ireland. We also find some evidence of spread effects in some richer EU Member States, although no inevitable link between lower regional disparities and stronger national growth. The potential policy implications of this analysis are also examined.

Interactions between National and Regional Development

In this paper we identify the main policy responses to the problem of regional unemployment in Germany, Spain and Italy. The paper takes a broad perspective in looking at the determinants of regional unemployment, the regional incidence of national policies and the effects and efficiency of regional policies. In spite of the very different situations and conditions in each country, there are a number of conclusions and policy options to reduce regional unemployment which governments and social partners should evaluate thoroughly. First, a stability-oriented macroeconomic policy-mix with a sufficiently flexible labour market is a necessary, although not sufficient condition for growth and employment at both national and regional levels. Second, the collective wage bargaining systems should either be decentralised de facto or should be complemented with easy-to-apply opt-outs at regional or firm level, thus allowing account to be taken of local or firm-specific conditions. Third, in order to avoid a long-term dependency of regions on fiscal transfers, incentives need to be set in such a way as to achieve an adequate balance between efficiency and equity. Fourth, the tax-benefit system should provide more incentives to create and take up jobs since disincentives are a particularly relevant problem for low-income regions. Fifth, pro-active regional policy expenditure on physical and human capital is indispensable for the catching-up of poorer regions, and the efficiency of these policies needs to be evaluated on a systematic and permanent basis. Finally, the low level of geographic mobility in the three countries needs to be addressed by a wide range of measures including greater regional differentiation of both wages and the tax-benefit system, more flexibility of the housing market, a more balanced use of fixed-term and permanent employment contracts as well as improvements in the public employment services.

Policy responses to regional unemployment : lessons from Germany, Spain and Italy

Davies S. and Polverari L. Financial accountability and European Union Cohesion policy, Regional Studies. Many changes in European Union Cohesion policy since the late 1990s have been driven by the need to ensure and demonstrate financial accountability. This paper examines how the increased emphasis on financial management, control and audit in relation to the European Union budget is reshaping the governance of Cohesion policy, as well as the instruments of financial accountability. It also assesses the effects of these new instruments on financial flows and considers how these changes are perceived by policy-makers. Lastly, it explores the difficulties of assessing the impact of administrative changes on financial accountability in Cohesion policy. Davies S. et Polverari L. La responsabilite financiere et la politique de l'Union europeenne en faveur de la cohesion, Regional Studies. Depuis la fin des annees 90, les nombreuses modifications a la politique de l'Union europeenne en faveur de la cohesion o...

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Financial accountability and European Union Cohesion policy

Although all European regions have been affected by the financial crisis and recession, the most severe difficulties have been seen where there were existing vulnerabilities, due to structural economic weaknesses or sectoral specialisation. The crisis has raised questions about the functioning of the financial and economic system, but has also demonstrated the importance of the role of government and of coordinated international action. The responses of European governments illustrate the varied ways in which the regional dimensions of economic difficulty can be addressed, either through active regional policy, or through other policies that explicitly target all or selected regions, or through the indirect regional effects of sectoral or thematic policies. There remains uncertainty over the path of recovery and over the strategies that governments will need to pursue in order to facilitate a return to sustained growth and employment creation.

Sara Davies

Papers

Regional resilience in the 2008–2010 downturn: comparative evidence from European countries

Interactions between National and Regional Development

Policy responses to regional unemployment : lessons from Germany, Spain and Italy

Financial accountability and European Union Cohesion policy

Regional dimensions of the financial and economic crisis