Abstract:

According to some recent research, Global Value Chains have been one of the main transmission mechanisms of the Great Trade Collapse that severely and simultaneously hit all advanced economies in 2009.  Pervasive as it has been, it also appears that the impact of the crisis on firms involved in Global Value Chains has been highly heterogeneous. Our paper intends to contribute to this very recent and ongoing debate, providing a description of the effects of the crisis from a perspective that is both country-comparative (Germany and Italy) and on firm level. Two are the main conclusions: i) intermediate firms were hit by the crisis more than final firms, regardless whether their main customer is localized; ii) firms’ position in GVCs and their strategies may help to explain part of the performance gap between Italian and German firms.