Polycentricity and regional economic resilience: A ridge regression approach

“Resilience” and “polycentricity” have surged as popular concepts over the recent decades, although the link between the two has not yet been investigated empirically. Identification of this relationship and its theoretical justification are politically crucial to shed light on prospective policies for urbanization and regionalization. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the impact of polycentricity/monocentricity on the regional resilience of Turkish (Nuts-2) regions against the global financial crisis in 2008/09. This paper also identifies the channels through which it can influence resilience. Through the application of a rich set of empirical tools, including computation of monocentricity degree, resistance, recovery, and adaptability indexes based on national and regional business cycle turning points, LOESS, RIDGE regressions, and inferential mediation tests, three main conclusions were obtained. First, polycentric regions were evidently more resistant to the crisis compared to monocentric morphologies; the later were more industrialized and open to trade, which made them more vulnerable to the crisis. Second, polycentric spatial structures were found to recover more quickly compared to monocentric regions. Third, monocentric regions clearly adapt better to long-term trajectories. In sum, the well-known strategy of the European Union rooted in “polycentric development” can still be valid for the purposes such as resisting to and recovering from economic disruptions. However, in the long-run, polycentrilization can hardly be seen as an optimal strategy, particularly in the context of adapting to the future trajectories.