TY - JOUR AU - Beveren,Ilke Van AU - Bernard,Andrew B. AU - Vandenbussche,Hylke TI - Concording EU Trade and Production Data over Time JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 18604 PY - 2012 Y2 - December 2012 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18604 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18604.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Ilke Van Beveren KU Leuven, Lessius Department of Business Studies Korte Nieuwstraat 33 2000 Antwerp, Belgium E-Mail: ilke.vanbeveren@kuleuven.be Andrew B. Bernard Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth 100 Tuck Hall Hanover, NH 03755 Tel: 603/646-0302 Fax: 603/646-0995 E-Mail: Andrew.B.Bernard@dartmouth.edu Hylke Y. Vandenbussche Université Catholique de Louvain Department of Economics Place Montesquieu 3 1348 Louvain-la-neuve Belgium Tel: +32 10 47 41 37 E-Mail: hylke.vandenbussche@econ.kuleuven.be AB - This paper provides concordance procedures for product-level trade and production data in the EU and examines the implications of changing product classifications on measured product adding and dropping at Belgian firms. Using the algorithms developed by Pierce and Schott (2012a,b), the paper develops concordance procedures that allow researchers to trace changes in coding systems over time and to translate product-level production and trade data into a common classification that is consistent both within a single year and over time. Separate procedures are created for the eight-digit Combined Nomenclature system used to classify international trade activities at the product level within the European Union as well as for the eight-digit Prodcom categories used to classify products in European domestic production data. The paper further highlights important differences in coverage between the Prodcom and Combined Nomenclature classifications which need to be taken into account when generating combined domestic production and international trade data at the product level. The use of consistent product codes over time results in less product adding and dropping at continuing firms in the Belgian export and production data. ER -