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....

The collapse of trade during the great recession of 2008-2009 has raised the question of whether the rise of global value chains (GVCs) has increased or accelerated the international transmission of business cycle shocks. In this paper, we empirically investigate two channels through which a...