The last decades were characterized by large increases in world trade, not only in absolute terms, but also in relation to world GDP. This was in large parts caused by increasing exchanges of parts and components between countries as a consequence of international fragmentation of production....

This paper examines the extent of stability, specialisation and divergence in manufacturing industries' export patterns for EU15 countries at both industry and country level, distinguishing between intra and extra EU15 exports as well as different technological categories. Both countrywide and...