Left behind places and regional resilience to COVID-19 shock in Europe

Current turbulent times pose challenges not only for countries, but also – and above all – for regions within them. However, economic resilience of left behind places is still underexplored, especially in the light of entrenched regional disparities. The aim of this paper is to investigate the nexus between regional development and economic resilience across 897 European NUTS 3 regions during the COVID-19 pandemic. To go beyond the GDP-based approach, we construct a multidimensional “left behindness” index. Our findings show that left behind places, as identified through this multidimensional approach, were relatively more successful in resisting the immediate pandemic shock, while more developed regions demonstrated a stronger recovery capacity. The results suggest that policymakers should adopt a differentiated strategy by strengthening the resistance of more advanced regions and enhancing the recovery capacity of left behind places to reduce persistent regional disparities.