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Global Health Econ Sustain An analysis of national economic resilience

refers to the capacity of an economy (whether of a and the results of counterfactual non-shock disturbance
country or a region) to absorb shocks and rapidly bounce path through causal model, so as to measure the economic
back (Martin, 2012; Bristow & Healy, 2020). From the resilience (Brakman et al., 2015). For example, Fingleton
existing research, different branches of economics pay et al. (2012), Doran & Fingleton (2016; 2018), and Zhou
different attention to economic resilience. In the field of et al. (2020) evaluated the economic resilience using this
development economics, the existing research focuses method.
on the development perspective of getting rid of poverty In sum, the main issue with existing research is their
and becoming rich. They tend to analyze the vulnerability sole focus on regional economic resilience, neglecting
and risk resistance of the poor class and small economies the national level. The main contribution of this paper
(Chaudhuri et al., 2002). In the field of regional economics, is providing a foundational framework for studying
the study of economic resilience is mainly committed and measuring economic resilience at the national
to measuring and investigating the ability and impact level.
factors of regional economic resilience and sustainable
development (Christopherson et al., 2010; Martin et al., 3. The progression of COVID-19 epidemic
2015; Bristow & Healy, 2020; Jin & Qian, 2020). Research and the economic policies in China
in the field of macroeconomics focuses on the ability of a
country’s economy to return to the original growth path This pandemic has manifested distinct characteristics
after encountering external shocks. This kind of economic across various phases, which can be used to delineate
resilience not only includes the influence of endogenous COVID-19’s progression in China into four stages, as
factors such as economic scale and economic strength depicted in Figure 1: the incubation stage, outbreak stage,
but also emphasizes the contribution of macroeconomic resolution stage, and stable stage (Jin et al., 2022).
policies (Aiginger, 2009; Hallegatte, 2014; Klimek et al., 3.1. Incubation stage
2019; Soufi et al., 2022).
During the incubation stage, the COVID-19 epidemic has
Another research focus concerns the measurement of
economic resilience, which can be broadly categorized not yet erupted, nor has it had a huge impact on China’s
economy (Jin and Qian, 2020). Therefore, the Chinese
into three groups. The first involves assessing economic government has not issued any economic, financial, or
resilience through descriptive and explanatory case industrial policies for dealing with the economic shocks.
analyses. Bondonio & Greenbaum (2018) examine the
resilience of county-level economies in the USA to rare 3.2. Outbreak stage
natural disasters. Angulo et al. (2018) analyzed the ability
to resist the economic crisis in Spain from three aspects, After the outbreak of COVID-19 in China, the government
namely, engineering resilience, ecological resilience, and took strict closure measures, which severely hit most
evolutionary resilience. Second, measuring economic economic industries, especially entertainment, retail,
resilience by building a composite index. Briguglio (2003) catering and other industries, as well as small and
and Briguglio et al. (2009) constructed a composite index micromanufacturing enterprises. Many enterprises
of economic resilience including macroeconomic stability, were forced to stop production activities, and their loan
microeconomic market efficiency, governance, and social repayment capacity was greatly reduced, resulting in the
cohesion to rank the economic resilience for various continuous increase of bad debts of financial institutions
countries (regions). Guillaumont (2009) measured regional (Jin et al., 2022).
economic resilience from five dimensions: national scale, To alleviate the huge impact of this epidemic, the
spatial location, industrial specialization degree, natural Chinese government implemented active fiscal policies
disasters severity, and export trade stability. Martin and easy monetary policies. There are four main aspects
et al. (2015) captured economic resilience from the four of fiscal policy in this period. First, the tax payment
dimensions of resistance, adaptation, organization, and deadline of enterprises is allowed to be extended. For
recovery. This definition highlights economic resilience example, the State Administration of Taxation announced
as an adaptive resilience, which is affirmed and adopted on January 30, 2020, that the tax payment deadline in
by many researchers (Nyström, 2018). The last group is February 2020 would be extended to February 24, 2020.
measuring economic resilience by using econometric Second, loan interest subsidy was provided for small and
models to calculate the speed of economic recovery. micro enterprises. The Ministry of Finance proposed
Specifically, some researchers select variables that reflect on February 2, 2020, that the central government would
the degree of economic shock and compare the gap between give interest subsidies to small and microenterprises
the real situation of variables before and after the shock at 50% of the loan interest rate for a period of no more

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.1842