Intensifier of urban economic resilience: Specialized or diversified agglomeration?

Weilu Li,Fei Huang,Qingbang Wu,Mingdou Zhang,Dongqi Sun,Ming Zhang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0260214

Abstract

With increased uncertainty and instability worldwide, how to enhance the urban economy resilience effectively has become one main issue for urban economic development. Based on the measurement of the economic resilience of 241 cities at the prefecture level and above in China using the sensitive index method, we scrutinize the impact of industrial specialization agglomeration and diversification agglomeration on urban economic resilience. Results indicate that, during the impact resistance period, industrial diversification agglomeration, especially related industrial diversification agglomeration, can enhance urban economic resilience, whereas industrial specialization agglomeration has no positive effect. In contrast, during the period of recovery and adjustment, industrial specialization agglomeration can improve urban economic resilience, and industrial diversification agglomeration, especially related industrial diversification agglomeration, has no positive effect. Further analysis indicates that, under the interaction of specialization and diversification agglomerations, the effect of industrial agglomeration on urban economic resilience depends on the type of dual industrial agglomeration, showing remarkable heterogeneity. This study may provide useful references for policy makers concerned with urban resilience.

Highlights

In recent years, the global economy has been slowing down and facing upgraded risks
The mechanism analysis above shows that diversified industrial structure can effectively help urban economy diversify risks, whereas the potential risk contagion chain of specialized industrial structure will continuously intensify the impact on the urban economy
The diversified industrial structure can be viewed as a diversified investment [33]; the production cost required can become unbearable for the urban economy during the recovery and adjustment period

Summary

Introduction

The global economy has been slowing down and facing upgraded risks. According to the report of the "world economic situation and prospects", we can find that the global average economic growth rate in the past ten years is only 2.5%, of which the global economic growth rates in 2016 and 2019 were only 2.2% and 2.3%. Affected by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the global economy has shrunk by 4.4%, which is more than 2.5 times that of the 2008 global financial crisis [2]. The Asian financial crisis in 1997, the international financial crisis in 2008, the SARS in 2003, and the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 have brought far-reaching impacts on urban economic development. When faced with a crisis, the economies of some cities become vulnerable and suffer severely, whereas the economy of some

Methods

Results

Conclusion