The relationship between Catcode/Catorder and NAICS/SIC

[Karam]

Hi,

First, thank you again for the data.

I'm using the lobbying dataset and am wondering how "Catcode" and
"Catorder" were constructed. The system looks a bit different from SIC
or NAICS at first glance. It would be great if you could explain how
they are different and/or interchangeable.

Thank you very much!

Karam

[Larry Makinson]

Great question, Karam. And a good one to post for everyone to see. I'll handle the answer, since I created the original set of codes.

The CRP codes were created in 1988 based primarily on the US government's SIC codes, which classify virtually every type of business under a detailed hierarchy, arranged by economic sector. (The SIC codes have since been replaced by the NAICS codes, but the basic idea remains the same.)

Taking our cue from those SIC codes, we divided business interests into 10 major sectors, from Agriculture (later renamed Agribusiness) to Transportation. You can see the categories and the hierarchical structure on the OpenSecrets website here: http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/slist.php

But we were trying to track political contributions, not the economy, so we had to improvise. First we added three more sectors: Labor, Ideological and Other. But even within the business sectors, we adapted the original codes to better fit the political landscape on Capitol Hill.

We did that by rearranging various industries, as necessary, to better reflect the jurisdictions of the different committees in Congress. That’s why, for instance, you’ll find Tobacco under Agribusiness. Not because the industry’s money comes from tobacco farmers, but because the Agriculture committees in the US House and Senate have jurisdiction over that industry.

If you’re studying Congress, that’s very helpful. If you’re looking at something else, it’s not. That’s why CRP’s codes differ slightly from those of the National Institute on Money & State Politics (NIMSP), which tracks campaign giving at the state level. Just like we did with the SIC codes, NIMSP started with the CRP codes, then improvised to better reflect the patterns they were seeing in the legislative bodies they were tracking.

And just as we improvised, my advice to everyone using this data would be for you to do the same. Whatever the sectors, feel free to mix and match different industries as you need to. For instance, if you were covering the debate over health care reform, you’d want both pharmaceutical companies and the insurance industry, even though they’re in two different sectors.

As for converting between the CRP codes and SIC or NAICS, feel free to do so, but just keep in mind that some industries match better than others. It’s sort of like a GPS in your car: most of the time it works great, but every once in a while you need to ignore it or it will steer you wrong. 

I remember we used to have an in-house table that had a conversion between the codes, at least for the ones that matched well. Susi may know if that’s still around somewhere, as that could give you a good head start for doing it yourself. Good luck and thanks again for the question!

Larry Makinson

[Doug]

I'm interested in individual contributions as a percentage of industry
size by state. Can anyone point me to a recent data source containing
the number of employees per state and industry. I'm happy for industry
to coded SIC, NAICS, CRP, UNSPSC etc. I'll do the mapping to RealCode/
CatName.

Thanks in advance.

Doug

[Steve Cicala]

Hi--I just wanted to check and see if there has been any update on
finding that in-house conversion table between your category codes and
SIC/NAICS codes. I'd love to incorporate it in my work.

Thanks,

Steve

[Doug]

Hi Steve,

No response as yet.

Regards,

Doug

[Susi]

Hi Steve,

I'm sorry that this took so long, but I just uploaded a text file to
this Group that our Executive Director found for us called
SIC2CRPCat.txt. This file maps SIC codes to CRP's category codes. I
make no promise as to it's accuracy because no one here has had any
time to review it. I'd love to get feedback if you spend time with
it, and if it proves helpful, perhaps we can cooperatively improve it.

Susi

[Steve Cicala]

Perfect timing! I just uploaded the crosswalk of CRP codes to NAICS
codes that I put together. It should be considered a first pass as I
had to guess when the category name was vague as to whether it
referred to a particular good's manufacture, wholesale, extraction,
etc. In general I tried to place the category in the most specific
NAICS bin possible--so it should be pretty solid when limiting to 3-
digit NAICS codes, for example.

Best,

Steve

[Daniele Incicco]

Hi guys!

I'm sorry for resuming this very old topic but I need a helping hand.
I would like to know if anyone of you have already coverted the sic code into the catcode or viceversa. I read here that there was a file (SIC2CAT.txt) or something similar but I can't find it here.

Thanks in advance!

[David Kraljic]

Hi everyone, 

I have the same questions as Daniele, Looking for the NAICS/SIC mapping to OpenSecrets Categories. I see mention of a few different files being attached to this group but I can't find the actual attachments. We are undertaking this mapping ourselves and would be happy to share the results/work with other on it. Would be great to have starting point though. 

Dave

[Susi Alger]

Hi Folks, 

It took some searching, but I did finally find a copy of the SIC2CRPCat.txt file that had been posted earlier.  You can find the file here:  

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17CbPsa0y96laz6EKlVxFATfskV1N6OJ-dKl4S08vFsE/edit?usp=sharing

Although this file is about 4 years old, it should provide a good start to your project.

Susi

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[Daniele Incicco]

Nice one Susi!!

Many thanks!!

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[Susi Alger]

Hello All,

Here's a version of the same information in a spreadsheet format.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsxEp_dYYKBYdENmUktaZnA5cEFGLWt2ZjYxdGdEOFE&usp=sharing

Susi

On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 10:16 AM, Daniele Incicco <daniele...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Lewis Tam]

Thank you very much, Susi. The file helps me a lot.

Lewis

On Wednesday, August 21, 2013 1:34:50 AM UTC+8, Susi wrote:

Hello All,

Here's a version of the same information in a spreadsheet format.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsxEp_dYYKBYdENmUktaZnA5cEFGLWt2ZjYxdGdEOFE&usp=sharing

Susi

On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 10:16 AM, Daniele Incicco <daniele...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi guys!

I'm sorry for resuming this very old topic but I need a helping hand.
I would like to know if anyone of you have already coverted the sic code into the catcode or viceversa. I read here that there was a file (SIC2CAT.txt) or something similar but I can't find it here.

Thanks in advance!

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[David Kraljic]

Hello all, 

Thanks again to Susi for providing the starting point for mapping OpenSecrets to SIC Mapping. I have taken it an extra step and mapped OS/SIC to NAICS. Attached. 

NOTE: Many of the columns are references to other sheets so be cautious when moving columns around. 

Dave

[RD]

Great post Dave, 2 yrs later and I'm grateful. 

[James Lake]

Very useful!

James

[Nataliya Gerasimova]

Thanks a lot!

[Olimpia Cutinelli Rendina]

Hi everyone, 

Thanks you a lot for this great mapping!

I am merging the mapping to the Bulk Data but I still have a lot of catcodes that are not matched (for instance A4300, A6000,B0000,B0500,C2300). 

Is there maybe a new version of the mapping? or any idea on how to do the mapping?

Thanks you very much,

Olimpia

[James Lake]

Doesn't the latest version of the CRP lobbying data have the NAICS classifications in the data now? That is, I don't think you have to use this old mapping anymore.

[Olimpia Cutinelli Rendina]

Thank you James for your answer, but I am not sure it does. In the "lob_indus" file I still have the catcode (with a format like F3200). Should I look somewhere else? It would indeed great if the NAICS classifications were already in the data!

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[James Lake]

Sorry Olimpia, I misunderstood when I spoke with a co-author of mine the other day. He was saying that the NAICS codes were now with the CRP lobbying data. And, this is essentially true but the data is downloaded from lobbyview.org and not directly from CRP. While you can only bulk download all of the data at lobbyview.org, you probably need to be decent at working with API's.

This website is a project by In Song Kim at MIT's Political Scicence department (http://web.mit.edu/insong/www/) who has used the CRP data extensively in his own research. I've known about this project for a while, but I didn't know it actually up and running now. It should be a great service to everyone using the data!

James

On Tuesday, November 26, 2019 at 4:32:43 AM UTC-6, Olimpia Cutinelli Rendina wrote:

Thank you James for your answer, but I am not sure it does. In the "lob_indus" file I still have the catcode (with a format like F3200). Should I look somewhere else? It would indeed great if the NAICS classifications were already in the data!

Le lun. 25 nov. 2019 à 23:49, James Lake <lake...@gmail.com> a écrit :

Doesn't the latest version of the CRP lobbying data have the NAICS classifications in the data now? That is, I don't think you have to use this old mapping anymore.

On Monday, November 25, 2019 at 11:05:35 AM UTC-6, Olimpia Cutinelli Rendina wrote:

Hi everyone, 

Thanks you a lot for this great mapping!

I am merging the mapping to the Bulk Data but I still have a lot of catcodes that are not matched (for instance A4300, A6000,B0000,B0500,C2300). 

Is there maybe a new version of the mapping? or any idea on how to do the mapping?

Thanks you very much,

Olimpia

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[Daniel Auble]

Some codes, especially the higher level ones such as B0000, won't neatly map to SIC or NAICS as they are catchall categories that include several more specific types of business or bigger companies that fall into several categories. It is also true that the mapping does not get updated or maintained by us.

Thanks to everyone who has pitched in to update or add to them!

Best,

Dan Auble

Senior Researcher

The Center for Responsive Politics

[Olimpia Cutinelli Rendina]

Thank you very much James, I didn't know this work and it is really both great and helpful! 

And thank you Daniel for your answer on higher catcodes levels!

Olimpia