Recovery & Resilience

Economic Resilience:

The capacity of communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city or region to build or maintain economic competitiveness by mitigating chronic stresses and decreasing vulnerability to acute shocks.

What are stresses and shocks?

Stresses and shocks can be economic, social, or environmental in nature; regardless, they have the ability to impact your economy. A stress is a chronic condition, such as economic disparities, growing poverty, and uncoordinated economic support systems. A shock is an acute event, such as the loss of a major employer, flood, or a pandemic. The impact of a shock is made worse by the presence of underlying stresses.

Fourth Economy is your partner for a more resilient future.

Fourth Economy is at the forefront of efforts to establish economic resilience. Our past work with 100 Resilient Cities and countless projects with communities in the midst of economic transformation guides our approach. The COVID-19 pandemic preyed upon chronic stresses in our communities and exacerbated economic disparities for the most vulnerable. Our team uses insights from the impacts of the pandemic to build more equitable and resilient communities.

The key to our process is understanding how your primary stresses influence your ability to leverage strengths, improve upon weaknesses, capture opportunities, and mitigate threats. That will inform the actionable strategies we develop with you to enhance your capacity to build and maintain economic competitiveness.