2 Data Description (continued)
Summary Statistics
Table 1 provides an indication of the relative level of details between sectors and industries. The table lists industries in Sector 15, “Base Metals and Articles of Base Metal” and aims to show the amount of variation in terms of products. The frequencies are reported to show that there is variation across industries, although some are much more important than others. A list of sector classifications is provided in Appendix 2.
Table 1 – Example of Industries in Sectors
| Industry | Description | Frequency | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 72 | Iron and steel | 19,600 | 11 |
| 73 | Articles of iron or steel | 68,700 | 38 |
| 74 | Copper and articles thereof | 8,900 | 5 |
| 75 | Nickel and articles thereof | 40 | 0 |
| 76 | Aluminium and articles thereof | 27,000 | 15 |
| 78 | Lead and articles thereof | 1,200 | 1 |
| 79 | Zinc and articles thereof | 840 | 0 |
| 80 | Tin and articles thereof | 380 | 0 |
| 81 | Other base metals, cermets | 170 | 0 |
| 82 | Tools, implements, cutlery, spoons and forks, of base metal, parts thereof of base metal |
33,400 | 18 |
| 83 | Miscellaneous articles of base metal | 22,500 | 12 |
| Total | 182,900 | 100 |
Note: On average, a sector has 5 industries and 494 products. This table shows that Sector 15 has 11 industries and the percentage of those industries in the whole sample.
Appendix 3 shows that on average a sector will have 5 industries and 494 products. The number of products ranges from a low of 9 in Sector 21 (works of arts, collector pieces) to a high of 1600 in Sector 16 (machinery).[10] On average, firms are not concentrated in one sector or industry—the average industry per firm is 6, most firms are multi product/sector/industry in terms of numbers (Sector 9 - wood - is the lowest) and in terms of value (Sector 5 - mineral products - is the lowest). The last three columns of Appendix 3 show that multi-product firms are more diverse.
Notes
- [10]In results not reported here, the mean and standard deviation of total sales in each sector were calculated to see sectoral differences, and there is a lot of variation across sectors.
