PLAID

Carsten Brockhaus — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Explore PLAID → Bulk downloads, a JSON API, and an interactive explorer.

PLAID (Product-Level AI-Derived Indicators Database) provides six product-level indicators for international trade at the HS 6-digit level, generated by an ensemble of frontier large language models.

Indicators

Indicator	Categories	Description
Rauch	w / r / n	Organised exchange, reference priced, or differentiated
BEC	capital / intermediate / consumption	Broad Economic Categories end-use classification
Perishability	1–5	Economic perishability scale with half-life estimate
Hazmat	true / false	GHS/IMDG dangerous goods flag
Microchip	true / false	Semiconductor or integrated circuit content
3TG	true / false + mineral	Tin, tantalum, tungsten, gold conflict mineral exposure

Coverage

All seven HS revisions: H0 (1992), H1 (1996), H2 (2002), H3 (2007), H4 (2012), H5 (2017), H6 (2022). Approximately 5,400 products per revision. Four-model ensemble with majority voting and uncertainty measures for each classification.

Access

Interactive explorer & downloads: plaid.julianhinz.com (mirror: trade.ifw-kiel.de/PLAID)
JSON API: plaid.julianhinz.com/api/v0.1/{revision}/{code}.json
Code & replication: github.com/julianhinz/PLAID

Data is released under CC BY 4.0, code under MIT.

PLAID: Product-Level AI-Derived Indicators Database for International Trade

Carsten Brockhaus — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

HS-6 level Rauch classifications reveal substantial heterogeneity within individual SITC headings.

Empirical trade research routinely relies on product-level indicators – whether goods are homogeneous or differentiated, perishable or durable, hazardous or benign – but existing classifications were built for older nomenclatures and have not kept pace with modern HS data. Mapping them forward through concordance tables introduces measurement error that is difficult to quantify and impossible to fix at the source.

PLAID takes a different approach. An ensemble of four frontier LLMs independently reads each HS 6-digit product description and classifies it, with majority voting across models and built-in uncertainty quantification through inter-model disagreement. The beta release (v0.1) provides six indicators across all seven HS revisions since 1992:

Rauch classification (organised exchange / reference priced / differentiated)
BEC end-use (capital / intermediate / consumption)
Economic perishability (five-class scale with half-life estimate)
Hazardous materials (GHS/IMDG dangerous goods flag)
Semiconductor content (microchip/IC presence)
3TG conflict minerals (tin, tantalum, tungsten, gold)

Each indicator is validated against external benchmarks where available and demonstrated to be empirically relevant through gravity applications. All data and code are open.

Website: plaid.julianhinz.com (mirror: trade.ifw-kiel.de/PLAID)

trade data · Julian Hinz

PLAID

Indicators

Coverage

Access

PLAID: Product-Level AI-Derived Indicators Database for International Trade