Does industry resilience matter for postshock industrial policy? A focus on tourism-related industries

Abstract

Selective industrial policies have been increasingly used by governments to achieve desired normative goals. However, they have been revealed to be complex and vulnerable interventions, demanding robust tools able to justify choices and mitigate potential ‘government failures’. In light of the emerging challenges and potential disruptions that might threaten our economies and societies, we contend that postshock industry resilience can be a valuable analytical framework to understand how different sectors react to unforeseen shocks. Accordingly, we present a methodology that measures postshock industry resilience and apply it to the Italian case in the aftermath of the 2008 shock. Particular attention is devoted to tourism-related industries. Main findings show that the industries reacted heterogeneously to the 2008 shock. For tourism-related industries, the results suggest following an ad hoc approach to the analysis of each tourism-focused industry to avoid generalizations that might lead to incorrect policy interpretations.