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Die Resilienz einer regionalen Ökonomie hängt maßgeblich davon ab, inwiefern relevantes spezifisches Humankapital zwischen deren Wirtschaftsaktivitäten wieder verwertet werden kann. Zu diesem Zweck wird das Instrumentarium Industry Space, das sich auf die Ähnlichkeiten in der Nutzung von Humankapital bzw. Skill-Relatedness zwischen Branchen stützt, zur Beschreibung der Wissensbasis zwischen den vorhandenen Wirtschaftszweigen einer Region sowie zur Analyse von dessen Wachstumsperspektiven und Resilienz vorgestellt. Beim Industry Space handelt es sich um ein Netzwerk von Branchen, die skill-related sind. Das Instrumentartium Industry Space wird im Rahmen von drei vergleichenden Fallstudien der ostdeutschen Automobilregionen Südwestsachsen (SWS), Eisenach (EIS) und Leipzig (LEI) eingesetzt für den Zeitraum 1999 bis 2008. Zum einen wird mit Hilfe des Industry Space die zwischen den regionalen Wirtschaftsaktivitäten vorhandene Wissensbasis in jeder Automobilregion dargestellt. Zum anderen wird die Einbettung der Automobilhersteller und der Automobilzulieferindustrie durch deren skillrelatedness mit anderen Wirtschaftszweigen jeder Regionen detailliert aufgezeigt. The resilience and growth prospects of a region depend crucially on the extent to which industry-specific human capital can be redeployed across the industries of a regional economy. To this end, we present a toolbox to analyse a region´s industrial structure, development prospects and economic resilience. With the help of this toolbox human capital similarities, or skill-relatedness, among industries are highlighted. The core of these analyses is the so-called industry space, a network that connects industries with similar human capital requirements. For the time period 1999 to 2008, a regional comparative analysis of three eastern German automobile regions, namely south-west Saxony (SWS), Eisenach region (EIS) and Leipzig region (LEI), is conducted. The objective is to highlight similarities and differences in the composition of the general automobile-oriented knowledge bases between these regions. In addition, the region-specific growth prospects of economic activities, in general and with a closer look at car manufacturers and automotive suppliers, are scrutinized and evaluated in greater detail for each region. This regional comparison is complemented by an investigation of the regional and industrial origins of labour inflows and by a simulation of labour shifts between shrinking and growing industries to figure out as to what extent redundant labour can be reallocated between skillrelated pairs of industries in each region under examination. In the following, the main outcomes of this regional comparison are summarized: The re-industrialisation process in the SWS and EIS regions was essentially brought about by the initial investments of the western German automotive groups VW, OPEL and BMW, while in the LEI region the automotive industries constitute a new core industry. It is unusual for a core manufacturing industry, associated primarily with the establishment of two major assembly plants, to develop in an urban region characterised by service industries. In fact, the location decisions of the two original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), Porsche AG and BMW AG, have proved advantageous as their factories are well embedded in this urban region as a result of the strong presence of skill-related services. It is by all means possible to speak of advantageous environment conditions for the motor vehicle manufacturers in the LEI urban region. However, this does not apply to the automotive suppliers to the same extent. The inadequate presence of skill-related manufacturing industries makes it more difficult for them to recruit specialists with the skills they require in their own region, such that the quality of the matching economies decreases for them. In the two other automotive regions, it is the automotive supplier industries which are quite well connected to other industries. The main difference between SWS and EIS can be seen in the embeddedness of the core industry of motor vehicle manufacturing. Whereas this industry is also very well embedded in the regional economy in SWS, in EIS the same industry cannot be seen to have either a high degree of embeddedness or of specialisation. The stability and the development potential of the automotive industry therefore appear to be largest in SWS. As both the automotive suppliers and the motor vehicle manufacturers in all three regions are primarily production-related because the R&D activities are located at the headquarters in western Germany or abroad, there is presumably little need for utilising the knowledge of workers from related industries in the region for generating product innovation (Jürgens/Meißner 2008). Nonetheless, access to such knowledge, which has often been accumulated during many years of experience, also appears to be essential for implementing and preparing process innovations in the plants and at the supplier firms, which is why in particular the core industry of the automotive industry in EIS "should not miss the bus". Having a look at labour inflows throughout the observation period, it could be shown that the emergence of these new economic activities in the LEI region were sustained to a great extent by inter-regional labour inflows. This statement holds especially true for the car manufacturers, whereas the local labour market pool satisfied mainly the labour demand of the supplier industries. Intra-regional labour flows play a more important role for car manufacturers and automotive suppliers in the regions EIS and SWS, although inter-regional labour inflows are more relevant for all automobile industries in EIS. In addition, a greater part of labour inflows originates from related economic units in SWS than in EIS. A complement to this comparative regional analysis was a simulation that was used to show whether or not the regional demand for labour in the industries in question can be met from skill-related industries. This simulation demonstrated that it would have been possible for the LEI region to shift a high share of redundant employment from shrinking to growing, but skill-related industries. These shares of simulated "related" labour flows are smaller in the regions EIS and SWS, whereas this share is lowest in SWS. These outcomes indicate that Leipzig's economy should have had adequate preconditions to anticipate a positive exogenous shock, namely the settlement of the production plants of the OEMs. However, the stronger specialization of the regional economies of EIS and SWS may explain that the more diversified urban economy of LEI is better prepared to anticipate diverging industrial demands.
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