Does regional integration improve economic resilience? Evidence from urban agglomerations in China

Under the dual pressure of “slow-burn” challenges and acute shocks, increasing economic resilience is gaining attention around the world to ensure the security and stability of economic activities. With the goal of achieving sustainable development, the China is exploring an innovative, coordinated, green, open, shared and secure development path for the regional economy. Using panel data for 241 cities at the prefecture level and above in China from 2010 to 2019, this research considers urban agglomeration planning as a quasi-natural experiment of regional integration and use a difference-in-differences method to explore the effect of regional integration on economic resilience. The results show the following. 1) Regional integration does improve economic resilience after various robustness tests. 2) The policy effect of regional integration on economic resilience varies by time, region, and urban structure. 3) Urban size structure and industrial structure are important ways in which regional integration affects economic resilience. Our findings enrich the theoretical study of the relationship between regional integration and economic resilience and provide a new path to improve regional economic resilience and achieve sustainable development.