Quo vadis resilience? Measurement and policy challenges: using the case of Italy

This chapter contributes to the study of resilience, by providing a discussion on some of the main methodological issues in this research area. To throw further light on the resilience debate, the work develops a meta-analysis of five resilience studies investigating local labour markets for the Italian case. The combination of these studies allows for consideration of different aspects of particular importance for the evaluation of resilience: unit of analysis, time coverage, measurement issues, and determinants. A specific discussion is also provided on the connections between the concept of resilience and related definitions, such as competitiveness and local development in the regional science literature. Three main research bottom lines are derived, with particular interest for the role of agency-based explaining factors. The chapter concludes with a summary of the work and addresses its policy implications.