Economic Resilience in a Pandemic: Did COVID-19 Policy Effects Override Industry Diversity Impacts in Australia?

The industry diversity thesis of economic resilience to economic shocks is embedded in community development policy across Australia. The idea being that in the event of an economic shock some industries will prove more recession-proof than others. The greater the industry diversity, the greater the likelihood of off-setting industry effects, resulting in greater economic resilience. The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated restrictions created a unique natural experiment to explore whether the industry diversity thesis holds true under the conditions of a global health pandemic. In this policy paper, we use JobKeeper applications as a proxy for decreased economic resilience. We explore if Australian local government areas (LGAs) with higher industry diversity had less necessity for JobKeeper. We also briefly consider if concentrations of certain industries acted as a better economic buffer to the COVID-19 economic shock. We observe that as diversity increases, economic resilience strengthens except for Victoria (where the association is inverted). This observation has important implications for current and future policy formation and implementation across all layers of government. © 2023 The Authors. Economic Papers;A journal of applied economics and policy published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of The Economic Society of Australia.

Local Focus: Farmers’ Markets as an Approach to Sustainable Tourism

Current global challenges, including climate change, pandemics such as COVID-19, and over-consumption, have led tourism scholars to rethink the (un)sustainability of the mass tourism model and its effects on communities and environments. A local focus, many argue, could bring about better outcomes for the economy, society, and the environment where tourism encounters occur. In this chapter, we explore the connection between farmers’ markets and sustainable tourism, conceptualising local food as a driver of sociocultural, economic, and environmental value. We argue that as a by-product of their contribution to the sustainability of the local food system they are embedded in, farmers’ markets can also offer authentic, social activities that support more sustainable forms of tourism and travel, such as proximity and slow tourism. We illustrate our arguments with findings from a case study of a farmers’ market held weekly in Tasmania, Australia. Our findings indicate that farmers’ markets contribute to a shift towards conscious consumption and more sustainable tourism behaviours in regional communities, including support for local businesses and local produce, enhancement and preservation of cultural, gastronomic heritage, and stimulation of slow and proximity forms of tourism as alternatives to mass tourism and other forms of (un)sustainable tourism activities. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Pathways to regional housing recovery from COVID-19

The effects of COVID-19 are unevenly distributed geographically, with regional areas likely to face different issues and therefore have different recovery needs in the wake of the pandemic. This research uses Tasmania as a case study to examine how COVID-19 has affected regional housing markets and communities. © 2021 Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. All rights reserved.