The role of regional competitiveness in shaping the heterogeneous impact of the Great Recession

This paper assesses the employment resilience of 202 European regions to the Great Recession by investigating the role of regional competitiveness. By using the regional shift component derived from a multiple bases shift–share analysis of employment change as a measure of regional endogenous employment growth, we show that pre-crisis regional competitiveness determinants are associated with positive performances during the crisis period. However, the variables considered explain well the different vulnerability of the economies, but less convincingly the ability to recover. Taking into account the spatial interactions among regions, results are confirmed and allow us to identify spillover effects.