Industrial variety, interregional industrial linkages, and regional resilience: evidence from China

This paper discusses the relationship between regional resilience and industrial variety from an evolutionary perspective. Using a panel dataset containing information on 285 cities at prefectural and higher levels in China, this paper introduces a spatial econometric model to explain how regional resilience is affected by industrial variety with interregional industrial linkages. I find that industrial variety plays a positive role in regional resilience and this role spills over through industrial linkages bridging regions. Due to the interregional linkages, regions can have greater resilience by utilizing industries of other regions. The effect of industrial variety on regional resilience depends on the position of a region in the network of industrial linkages. This effect is also limited by the types of industrial linkages.