This article provides evidence of a link between specialization patterns-in intermediate inputs or final goods-and business cycle correlations: countries with a similar intermediate goods content of exports tend to have more correlated gross domestic product fluctuations and external balances....

This paper applies the Permanent Income Model to the non-oil current accounts of the major oil exporters to assess the extent to which national consumption decisions in these countries are made on the basis of permanent versus current income. A test of whether the return on oil wealth and oil...