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What is a product anyway? Applying the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) to historical data

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  • Wolf-Fabian Hungerland
  • Christoph Altmeppen

Abstract

We study the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC). Thousands of studies rely on disaggregated trade data, but the quality of these studies’ unit of analysis—bins of goods categories arranged in certain hierarchies—is rarely studied. It is often unclear what a product or a variety really is. Meanwhile, increasingly granular trade data from before the 1950s are lifted from the archives that require standardization. The SITC provides a framework for that. We make four contributions: First, we work out the specificities of each SITC revision, analyze how revisions are related, and provide improved correspondence tables between all revisions. We show that revision choice can affect the analysis of historical trade data. Second, we propose basic rules for translating historical, unstandardized trade statistics to the SITC. Third, we translate German product-level trade data from the first globalization to both SITC revisions 2 and 4 in order to find out which revision may be more applicable to historical data. Fourth, we then develop metrics to quantitatively assess our translation exercise. We argue that despite inevitable imperfections, applying the SITC yields useful results, even on a very disaggregated level.

Suggested Citation

  • Wolf-Fabian Hungerland & Christoph Altmeppen, 2021. "What is a product anyway? Applying the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) to historical data," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(2), pages 65-79, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:vhimxx:v:54:y:2021:i:2:p:65-79
    DOI: 10.1080/01615440.2020.1853644
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    Cited by:

    1. Bräuer, Richard & Hungerland, Wolf-Fabian & Kersting, Felix, 2021. "Trade Shocks, Labor Markets and Elections in the First Globalization," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 285, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    2. Nikolaus Wolf, 2021. "Deutschland in der ersten Globalisierung," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 101(4), pages 254-258, April.
    3. Richard Bräuer & Felix Kersting, 2023. "Trade Shocks, Labour Markets and Migration in the First Globalisation," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(657), pages 135-164.
    4. Wolf-Fabiann Hungerland & Nikolaus Wolf, 2022. "The panopticon of Germany’s foreign trade, 1880–1913: New facts on the first globalization [Economics and the modern economic historian]," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 26(4), pages 479-507.

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