Identifying U.S. Merchandise Traders: Integrating Customs Transactions with Business Administrative Data
September 2020
Working Paper Number:
CES-20-28
Abstract
This paper describes the construction of the Longitudinal Firm Trade Transactions Database (LFTTD) enabling the identification of merchandise traders - exporters and importers - in the U.S. Census Bureau's Business Register (BR). The LFTTD links merchandise export and import transactions from customs declaration forms to the BR beginning in 1992 through the present. We employ a combination of deterministic and probabilistic matching algorithms to assign a unique firm identifier in the BR to a merchandise export or import transaction record. On average, we match 89 percent of export and import values to a firm identifier. In 1992, we match 79 (88) percent of export (import) value; in 2017, we match 92 (96) percent of export (import) value. Trade transactions in year t are matched to years between 1976 and t+1 of the BR. On average, 94 percent of the trade value matches to a firm in year t of the BR. The LFTTD provides the most comprehensive identification of and the foundation for the analysis of goods trading firms in the U.S. economy.
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:
import,
export,
commodity,
shipment,
exporting,
exporter,
classified,
importing,
wholesale,
gdp,
firms export,
matching,
warehouse,
identifier,
imported,
merchandise,
trading,
importer,
custom,
trader,
firms import,
exporting firms
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including "organizations." By filtering for frequent words and phrases labeled as "organizations", papers are
identified to contain references to specific institutions, datasets, and other organizations.
:
American Economic Association,
Internal Revenue Service,
Service Annual Survey,
Center for Economic Studies,
Bureau of Economic Analysis,
County Business Patterns,
Statistics Canada,
Auxiliary Establishment Survey,
Census of Manufacturing Firms,
Employer Identification Numbers,
Federal Register,
Postal Service,
Economic Census,
North American Industry Classification System,
Social Security Number,
Census Bureau Business Register,
Business Register,
Harmonized System,
Census Bureau Disclosure Review Board,
Longitudinal Firm Trade Transactions Database,
Disclosure Review Board,
Customs and Border Protection,
Business Dynamics Statistics,
Federal Statistical Research Data Center
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