Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

December 2011

A Concordance Between Ten-Digit U.S. Harmonized System Codes and SIC/NAICS Product Classes and Industries

Justin R. Pierce and Peter K. Schott

Abstract:

While the relationship between international trade and domestic economic activity is an important topic in economics, research in this area has been slowed due to data limitations. In this paper we provide tools that improve the existing data in two ways. First, we develop an algorithm that yields concordances between the ten-digit Harmonized System (HS) codes used to classify products in U.S. international trade and the SIC and NAICS industry codes used to classify domestic economic activity. These concordances then yield novel time series of industry-level international trade data for the years 1989 to 2009. Second, we provide concordances between HS codes and the SIC and NAICS product classes used to classify U.S. manufacturing production, allowing for matching at a more disaggregated level than was previously available.

Keywords: International trade, industry classification

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