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SummaryThe Ricardian and Heckscher‐Ohlin models of international trade contend that firms do not play any role in shaping countries' export specialization. However, the evidence shows that few firms dominate exports in many countries. This paper analyzes the relative contribution of fundamental (country) and granular (individual) comparative advantage to the differences in specialization across countries in a particular activity: chess. Using data on the quality of around 146,000 chess players in 106 countries in 2015, I find that fundamental comparative advantage is the main contributor to the variation in countries' specialization in chess. However, the contribution of granular comparative advantage becomes larger when analyzing specialization in very high‐quality chess players. Despite the appearance of chess servers that allow playing online and offer tools to improve chess skills, I do not find convergence in fundamental comparative advantage over the period 2001‐2015.

"Die spanischen Importe von China haben sich im Zeitraum von 1999 bis 2007 versechsfacht und dieses asiatische Land zum viertgrößten Lieferanten für die spanische Wirtschaft gemacht. In diesem Beitrag untersuchen wir, ob sich diese massive Zunahme der Importe aufgrund der Unterschiede bei der anfänglichen Spezialisierung der Produktion unterschiedlich stark auf die Arbeitsmärkte der einzelnen spanischen Provinzen ausgewirkt hat. Aus den Ergebnissen geht hervor, dass spanische Provinzen mit einem höheren Anteil chinesischer Importe einen stärkeren Rückgang des Beschäftigungsniveaus im produzierenden Sektor als Anteil an der Bevölkerung im arbeitsfähigen Alter verzeichneten. Allerdings wurde dieser Rückgang durch eine Erhöhung des Beschäftigungsniveaus im nicht-produzierenden Sektor ausgeglichen." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

The existence of a large border effect is considered as one of the main puzzles of international macroeconomics. We show that the border effect is, to a large extent, an artefact of geographical concentration. To do so, we combine international flows with intra-national flows data characterised by a high geographical grid. At this fine grid, intra-national flows are highly localised and dropping sharply with distance. The use of a small geographical unit of reference to measure intra-national bilateral trade flows allows to estimating correctly the negative impact of distance on shipments. When we use sector disaggregated export flows of 50 Spanish provinces in years 2000 and 2005 split into inter-provincial and inter-national flows, we find that the border effect is reduced substantially and even becomes statistically not different from zero in some estimations. ; Financial support from Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (ECO2010-21643/ECON; project ECO 2008-04059/ECON), Regional Government of Madrid (project TransporTrade S2007/HUM/497), Department of Education, Universities and Research of the Basque Government, and Generalitat Valenciana (project Prometeo/2009/098).