Synergistic analysis of the resilience and efficiency of China’s marine economy and the role of resilience policy

Abstract Exploring the interaction between marine economic resilience and efficiency, and the associated resilience policies, provides an important scientific reference for sustainable development of China’s marine economy. This study uses the core variable method and the slacks-based measure of super-efficiency to measure the resilience and efficiency of the marine economy, respectively, for 11 coastal provinces in China from 2007 to 2019. The Haken model is used to describe the synergistic evolution of resilience and efficiency, and the government’s policy response is considered. The main results are as follows. (1) Marine economic efficiency dominates the synergistic development of the system; however, the effect of resilience becomes increasingly prominent as the quality of China’s marine economy increases. (2) A significant spatio-temporal difference is observed in the synergistic evolution of marine economic resilience and efficiency. Moreover, a pattern of polarization still exists, inter-regional cooperation is insufficient, and the resilience-efficiency relationship tends to evolve from the primary to advanced stage and from single polarization to multi-polarization. (3) The dynamic effects of marine economic resilience and efficiency exhibit fluctuating characteristics, which indicates that endogenous growth of China’s marine economy is insufficient. Thus, there is an urgent need to build a diversified industrial system under the existing industrial foundation and technological level to strengthen economic resilience and promote sustainable development of the marine economy. (4) A policy response mechanism should be constructed that focuses on resilience policy and explores policy interactions from the three aspects of the marine industry, marine cultural environment, and marine governance. Such a policy framework would provide theoretical and practical support for building marine economic resilience.