Measuring the economic resilience of natural disasters: An analysis of major earthquakes in Japan

In recent years, the study of resilience of regional and local systems has become a popular topic in relation to the increasing of economic, social and environmental shocks. Despite the theoretical framework has been enriched through definitions and empirical investigations, accordance in measurement is still missing. This paper aims to enlarge the discussion of regional economic resilience in the face of natural disasters through the construction of the indices of resistance and recovery for Japanese prefectures stricken by major earthquakes. These measures may help to identify changes in employment due to the occurrence of a natural shock.