Open research questions in Regional resilience and development

What the literature leaves open

• The paper identifies technical challenges in estimating the dynamic Bayesian shrinkage model, including the need for row-standardisation of the spatial weights matrix. It notes domain challenges in defining neighbourhood links and addressing geographically isolated regions.

  Adaptive bayesian optimization for sustainable regional resilience: a multiscale framework · 2026 · DOI

• Further research could investigate the application of the proposed framework to other types of recovery settings. The development of more sophisticated models that can capture the complex interactions between regional recovery and other factors could be an area of future research.

  Adaptive bayesian optimization for sustainable regional resilience: a multiscale framework · 2026 · DOI

• The need to address the adversities of unbalanced growth and environmental challenges. The challenge of applying advanced methodologies like social network analysis and TERGM to the study of marine economic resilience.

  Advancing Marine-Bearing Capacity and Economic Growth: A Comprehensive Analysis of Blue Economy Resilience, Network Evolution, and Technological Influences in China’s Coastal Areas · 2024 · DOI

• The need for a comprehensive approach to evaluating the resilience of China's blue economy. The lack of understanding of the complex dynamics of resilience and the pivotal factors shaping it. The importance of addressing the adversities of unbalanced growth and environmental challenges in the marine economy.

  Advancing Marine-Bearing Capacity and Economic Growth: A Comprehensive Analysis of Blue Economy Resilience, Network Evolution, and Technological Influences in China’s Coastal Areas · 2024 · DOI

• The need for a comprehensive evaluation of the resilience of China's agricultural economy. The lack of understanding of the evolution trend of agricultural economic resilience in different times and spaces. The need to analyze the differences in resilience among regions and its spread in space.

  Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Spatial Spillover Effects of Resilience in China’s Agricultural Economy · 2024 · DOI

• The lack of understanding of digital finance's effects on agricultural economy resilience. The need for empirical analysis of digital finance's effects, mechanisms, and heterogeneity on agricultural economy resilience.

  The Role of Digital Finance in Shaping Agricultural Economic Resilience: Evidence from Machine Learning · 2024 · DOI

• There is a need to analyze the impact and mechanisms of digital village levels on agricultural resilience in ecologically fragile ethnic areas. The study identifies a gap in the literature regarding the evaluation index system of agricultural resilience. The research aims to address the gap by constructing a multidimensional index system to measure agricultural resilience.

  The Impact and Mechanism of Digital Villages on Agricultural Resilience in Ecologically Fragile Ethnic Areas: Evidence from China’s Provinces · 2024 · DOI

• On the one hand, the accuracy and explanatory power of the assessment are impacted by the limited data acquisition and the difficulty of comprehensively covering soft factors, such as the micro-space of villages, the activity of intangible culture, and the subjective perceptions of villagers.

  Integrating AHP-Entropy and IPA Models for Strategic Rural Revitalization: A Case Study of Traditional Villages in Northeast China · 2025 · DOI

• Theoretically, while extant work centers on urban or economic resilience, the spatial adaptive mechanisms of logistics systems—critical yet understudied infrastructure—remain unaddressed.

  Spatiotemporal Evolution and Differential Characteristics of Logistics Resilience in Provinces Along the Belt and Road in China · 2025 · DOI

• “Resilience” and “polycentricity” have surged as popular concepts over the recent decades, although the link between the two has not yet been investigated empirically.

  Polycentricity and regional economic resilience: A ridge regression approach · 2025 · DOI

• However, existing research has paid limited attention to the role of science and technology (sci-tech) finance, and its causal impact, underlying mechanisms, and spatial spillover effects remain underexplored.

  Can science and technology finance enhance urban economic resilience? Evidence from China’s pilot policies · 2025 · DOI

• Enhancing the resilience of coastal cities is a global priority, yet the spatiotemporal dynamics, inequalities, and drivers of resilience at the city level remain poorly understood.

  Revealing coastal resilience in China: Spatiotemporal dynamics, regional inequality, and structural drivers · 2025 · DOI

• The assessment of SES resilience faces challenges in data integration and the lack of standardized quantitative methods. Current research operates primarily within two frameworks, with limitations in capturing dynamic processes.

  Network resilience of regional social-ecological systems under energy transition: measurement, drivers, and structural optimization in the Yangtze River Delta · 2026 · DOI

• Direct empirical evidence on the impact of digital infrastructure on urban ecological resilience remains limited. The mechanisms through which digital infrastructure enhances urban ecological resilience are not well understood. The heterogeneity of the effect of digital infrastructure on urban ecological resilience across different regions and city types is not well examined.

  Can digital infrastructure improve urban ecological resilience? Evidence from the “Broadband China” strategy · 2026 · DOI

• There is a need to investigate the impact of low-carbon city development on urban economic resilience. The existing literature lacks studies on the policy outcomes associated with low-carbon city initiatives.

  As the low-carbon wave sweeps over China, how can urban economic resilience break through? · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a need to clarify foundational issues and policy implications associated with resilience.

  Resilience in Regional Economics and Science: Some Disputed Issues · 2026 · DOI

• The lack of understanding of the impact of the National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone policy on urban economic resilience efficiency. The need to uncover the underlying channels through which the policy enhances urban economic resilience efficiency. The gap in providing theoretical support and practical guidance for refining the policy framework and promoting sustainable urban economic development.

  National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone Policy and Urban Economic Resilience Efficiency: Evidence for Sustainable Urban Development in China · 2026 · DOI

• The study aims to address this gap by analyzing the impact of variety on resilience in Turkey.

  The role of related and unrelated variety in regional economic resilience: insights from Turkish regions · 2026 · DOI

• Although the central government issued 10 trillion yuan in 2024 to replace local debt, such interventions mainly provide short-term relief, leaving longterm mitigation mechanisms underexplored.

  From complexity to resilience: the role of regional knowledge in reducing China’s local government debt risk · 2026 · DOI

• Can Regional Infrastructure Predict Its Economic Resilience?

  Population Density, Digital Connectivity, and Economic Resilience: A Regional Resilience Index for the European Union Regions · 2026 · DOI

• However, the effects they can have on the entire region have not been analyzed, as in this study.

  Cluster strength and regional resilience: the case of the USA in the Great Recession · 2024 · DOI

• Further research could explore the impact of digital finance on agricultural economic resilience in other countries or regions, - Future studies could investigate the role of other factors, such as climate change or trade policies, on agricultural economic resilience, - Research could also examine the effectiveness of different digital finance models or platforms in promoting agricultural economic…

  The Role of Digital Finance in Shaping Agricultural Economic Resilience: Evidence from Machine Learning · 2024 · DOI

• Territorial Service Security for Regional Science in an Age of Compound…

  Beyond Supply Security: Territorial Service Security for Regional Science in an Age of Compound Shocks · 2026 · DOI

• The need to harmonize national legislation with EU regulatory standards - The lack of a system of corrective indices to differentiate…

  Railway tariff setting based on community resilience indicators: national model development with EU comparative insights for economic policy · 2026 · DOI

• Developing a dynamic model of community resilience. Assessing the impact of social, economic, or ecological crises on community resilience. Strengthening communities' resilience to deal with future challenges.

  Assessment of socio-economic resilience of Lithuanian municipalities · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Regional resilience and development

• Social and ecological resilience: are they related? · Progress in Human Geography · 2000 · 3,408 citations
• Defining urban resilience: A review · Landscape and Urban Planning · 2015 · 2,812 citations
• The economic resilience of regions: towards an evolutionary approach · Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society · 2010 · 1,202 citations
• Towards an Evolutionary Perspective on Regional Resilience · Regional Studies · 2014 · 1,119 citations
• From fail-safe to safe-to-fail: Sustainability and resilience in the new urban world · Landscape and Urban Planning · 2011 · 1,111 citations
• Community Resilience: An Indicator of Social Sustainability · Society & Natural Resources · 2010 · 1,068 citations
• The asset vulnerability framework: Reassessing urban poverty reduction strategies · World Development · 1998 · 977 citations
• From resilience to resourcefulness · Progress in Human Geography · 2012 · 866 citations
• Spatial planning for multifunctional green infrastructure: Growing resilience in Detroit · Landscape and Urban Planning · 2016 · 812 citations
• How Regions React to Recessions: Resilience and the Role of Economic Structure · Regional Studies · 2016 · 732 citations

Most recent work

• Learning from residuals: a knowledge-data-driven hybrid model for explaining the social-ecological influences on urban agglomeration resilience · Sustainable Cities and Society · 2026
• Network infrastructure construction and digital innovation resilience: Evidence from Broadband China policy · Information Processing & Management · 2026
• Co-benefits and trade-offs of urban resilience for sustainable development goals (SDGs) · Habitat International · 2026
• Can digital infrastructure construction enhance industrial chain resilience? Evidence from China · Economic Analysis and Policy · 2026
• Economic resilience in ASEAN under global shocks: The roles of demography, investment, digital economy, and talent · Technology in Society · 2026
• Research on the impact of agricultural new quality productive forces on grain production resilience: evidence from China · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · 2026
• Green data center pilots and urban economic resilience: Causal inference based on double machine learning · International Review of Economics & Finance · 2026
• Optimization and driving mechanisms of agricultural resilience measurement based on XGBoost-SHAP model: Evidence from China · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · 2026
• Digital economy, resource allocation efficiency, and firm export resilience · Finance research letters · 2026
• From resource curse to resilience restructuring: How does the innovation ecosystems' organicity reshape industrial transformation in resource-based regions? A case study of China's π-shaped Curve Area · Applied Geography · 2026

Related topics in Economics, Econometrics and Finance