Figure out what to do about exports data

[shawnbot]

The exports data that we have right now comes from Census, but there are a couple of problems with it for us:

• We haven't fully mapped all of the HS6 codes. Isabelle gave us some very specific mappings, but we're dropping a lot of the data on the floor. For instance, the entire 25XXXX code series involves mining. Couldn't most of the exports with HS6 codes in that series be attributed to "Hard Minerals"?

• Census only gives us the top 25 exports for each state over the entire period, which means that we may be missing some data in the event that:

  1. a state has a large volume of extractive exports, but also has 25+ other high-volume exports that bump extractives off the list;
  2. a state had export volumes high enough to put extractives in the top 25 for one year, but not enough for them to be in the top 25 overall.

  For instance, California may not have had exported enough oil to make the top 25 (maybe because agricultural and other export volumes are much higher), but those volumes may have been higher than those of smaller states in which oil was the biggest export. This would result in California not being shown on the map at all, even though it might have a higher export volume for a particular year than other states that do show up.

[meiqimichelle]

OBE