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Fri Mar 31 17:18:28 2006 |
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----------------- HES POSTING -----------------
It is possible that there are some tensions between an analytical
definition and a statistical definition of industry.
Customs officials have long struggled to deal with definitions of traded
goods (especially as misclassification may be deliberately made to avoid
tariffs). An international union of custom agencies created an
International Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (the
Harmonized System or HS). The HS is a broad classification system of
approximately 5,000 headings
(in 6-digits) which are used for classifying goods involved in
international trade. First introduced on 1 January 1988, it has
subsequently been adopted as the basis for describing and classifying goods
for Customs purposes by most trading nations. It provides international
omparability of trade information for administrative and statistical
purposes.
There are many dimensions in classification systems. One approach is to
lump together things using same or similar inputs, or originating from same
producers. Another approach is to consider the end-user’s perspective. For
example, men's shirts may vary widely according to the input used, but the
user may see them all as shirts. On the reverse side, a garment
manufacturer may produce men's shirts and boy’s shirts and women’s blouses
from essentially the same materials, using pretty much the same technology,
that is, a blouse is a shirt by another name or a man's shirt is a boy's
shirt for boys known as men. There are many other possibilities of
classification.
For the historian of thought, perhaps the more interesting question is the
analytical definition. I have no idea what that might be. I need help.
Mohammad Gani
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