Date of Award
Fall 2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Science (DSc) in Emergency Management
Department
Emergency Management & Public Administration
Committee Chair
Shih-Kai Huang
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an opportunity for disaster science researchers to gain insight into the underlying nature of community resilience through comparing the socioeconomic effects of government action to a common threat across urban population centers of varying economic compositions. For example, the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment related to public health mitigation efforts in the leisure and hospitality sector of Las Vegas, NV, during the onset of the pandemic were well publicized. In comparison, other population centers of similar size but with different economic sector composition varied in the degree to which employment were affected, and in their trajectories of economic adaptation and recovery. Local economic development agencies currently use strategies designed to increase regional economic specialization to promote economic growth, however, evidence from disaster science research shows that the promotion of economic specialization over diversification may create vulnerability. This study uses Shannon’s Entropy as a calculated measure of diversity in regional economic industry sector composition, to quantify economic resilience through the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to employment. This study is intended to inform regional economic development organizations in building economic disaster resilience through alternative approaches to the use of existing policy tools, and to inform future research into what industry mix is most likely to promote economic disaster resilience, and how different industry sectors interact and connect an urban center to the global economic system.