Resilience as a Fiscal Input: County Financial Condition in an Open Systems Framework

Abstract This study explores how community resilience shapes local fiscal health by integrating the Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) into an open‐systems framework of public finance. Using financial data from U.S. counties for fiscal years 2016 and 2021, we examined whether the six BRIC domains explain variation in operating performance, fiscal reserves, and debt levels. We found that economic and social resilience were positively associated with higher fiscal reserves, while housing infrastructure and civic engagement reduced them. This challenges a monotonic relationship between community resilience and county fiscal health, revealing trade‐off dynamics and the context‐dependent nature underlying it.