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One of the major definitional problems arises from the differences in level of detail at which a "product" is specified. On the concept of the "product", one can usefully cite the 1977 Census of Manufactures as follows: "A "product" as used in the Census of Manufactures is the finest level of detail for which output information was requested. It is not necessarily synonymous with the term "product" as used in the marketing sense. In some cases it may be more detailed and in other cases, it may be more aggregative. For example, there is a long list of pharmaceutical preparations but a single item for all canned meats." (1977 Census of Manufactures, p. XXII, 1981a).

This creates the problem that in one country several heterogeneous products (in the marketing sense) may be regarded as one "product" in the census, while in the other country these products are specified separately. This problem is dealt with extensively in chapter VI.

Another important definitional problem concerns the different industrial classifications used in the countries involved. The United Nations Yearbook of Industrial Statistics classifies commodities according to ISIC. Unfortunately, none of the countries included in this comparison applies the ISIC classification. A strict adherence to ISIC by all countries would indeed simplify the process of international comparison, but the national statistical offices usually claim that their country's output structure is unique and specific enough to warrant a separate national classification system.

Data for the United States were taken from the 1977 Census of Manufactures (1981a and 1981b). In this census, information is classified according to the American Standard Industrial Classification (SIC), which assigns some 13,000 product items to approximately 1,500 product groups according to a 7 digit classification. Not all information is published by the census. Data are withheld for national security reasons for certain products. When the number of establishments reporting is limited, information is withheld so as not to violate the privacy of individual firms by providing classified information to their competitors. The census includes all establishments employing one person or more at any time in the census year, but in a limited number of cases, single-establishment companies with fewer than 5 employees were not required to repo.rt to the census bureau. Generally speaking, the quantity and value of output of these latter establishments are estimated by the census bureau. Because we had to adjust the 1977 figures for the United States to a 1975 level we also used 1975 value figures at the SIC level from the Annual Survey of Manufactures 1975-76 (1979). Figures on quantity movements between 1975 and 1977 were taken from the 1982 US Industrial Outlook (1982). The adjustment procedures are explained in detail below.

In Brazil there is no analytic coding in the census. The detailed information on quantities and values by product in the volume Producao Fisica (vol. 2, part II, Rio, 1981b) is presented with a sequence of numbers from 1 to 13,678. Some of these numbered items refer to production in Brazil as a whole and others to production by state. The other main volume, Censo Industrial (vol. 2, part I, Rio, 1981a) gives an analytic breakdown of value, census value added, employment, and inputs for 24 major industry groups, of which 23 are part of the manufacturing sector. The numbering system in Censo Industrial is different from Producao Fisica, though the same sequence of branches is used in the two volumes. Table 3 of the Censo Industrial gives information for 1,299 "industries", but the finer breakdown