30 Hudec O., Manakova N., Šiserová M. WHICH CITIES ARE VULNERABLE TO THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS? EVIDENCE RELATED TO SLOVAK CITIES Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management Volume 12 Issue 2 / May 2017 ent WHICH CITIES ARE VULNERABLE TO THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS? EVIDENCE RELATED TO SLOVAK CITIES Oto HUDEC Technical University of Košice, Faculty of Economics, Němcovej 32, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia, oto.hudec@tuke.sk Nataliia MANAKOVA O.M.Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv, 17, Marshal Bazhanov Street, Kharkiv, 61002, Ukraine, nataliya.manakova@kname.edu.ua Monika ŠISEROVÁ Technical University of Košice, Faculty of Economics, Němcovej 32, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia, monika.siserova@tuke.sk Abstract The capacity of cities to respond to major recessionary shocks and hazards is an essential factor of long-run growth as it affects the existence, persistence and evolution of regional disparities in economic prosperity. Vulnerability to recession shocks in terms of rising unemployment varies from city to city and there are hidden factors behind the responses. The 2007 economic crisis provides an opportunity to study the vulnerability of cities to its effects. Three critical factors of vulnerability are investigated – prosperity, size of the city and regional affiliation. Prosperity is shown to be at the expense of the negative externality of greater vulnerability to external global shocks and disturbances. A lower ability to respond mainly relates to regional centres, larger cities as well as the smallest local units. Keywords: urban prosperity, urban vulnerability, city-size, Slovak local units. 1. INTRODUCTION Economic collapses affecting the economy and lives of people around the world are considered the hallmark of today’s global economy. Cyclic alternating periods of economic growth and decline, recession, recovery and re-growth represent an intrinsic part of the market economy. Since 1970, there has been a worldwide series of economic declines which have had extensive and often serious consequences. Economic shocks that cause significant damage can be, in essence, integrated into a general group of natural hazards such as climate change effects, catastrophic events, earthquakes, fires or flooding. In practice, the effects of economic downturn rarely spread evenly among the different national or regional