To estimate correctly the effect of variable trade costs on firms' exports, the gravity equation should control for the number of firms that participate in foreign markets. Due to the absence of these data, previous studies control for this omitted variable using econometric strategies that may...

Using data for all exporters, we show that it is a small group of firms that dominate exports in Spain. For example, in 2015 the top 200 firms were responsible for half of Spanish exports. This concentration has not changed substantially over the 1997-2015 period. The dominance of a few firms, a...

Personal characteristics of migrants could help to strengthen the impact of migrant networks on bilateral trade. While most of the attention has been focused on immigrants' educational attainment, this paper focuses on the relevance of the tasks carried out by migrants. Our empirical results...

Using newly panel data on visa restrictions for the years 2000 and 2010 in a theory-grounded gravity model, we find a robust, causal negative impact of visa restrictions on international tourist flows. By destination, the detrimental impact of this type of barrier is observed for tourists going...

There is abundant evidence that immigrants' networks are associated with larger trade flows between countries of origin and the country (or province) where they settle. The causality of such relation and its magnitude, however, have not been proven beyond reasonable doubt. We use the simple...

The border effect literature concludes that border-related trade costs, along with the elasticity of substitution, explain why countries trade more with themselves than with other partners.On its hand, the exporting firm literature shows that larger,more productive and more skilled-labour...