BEA Industry to Marxian Department Mapping

Complete reference for the mapping from BEA Summary-level industry codes to the four Marxian departments. This mapping is loaded by DefaultDepartmentAggregator.get_default_mapping() from the TOML file src/babylon/economics/tensor_hierarchy/mappings/bea_to_department.toml.

For the theoretical rationale behind the departments, see Tensor Hierarchy Architecture. For the aggregation algorithm, see Input-Output Economics and the Leontief Inverse.

The Four Departments (Brief)

Code	Name	Description
`I`	Means of Production	Capital goods consumed productively. Mining, manufacturing (producer goods), construction, utilities, transport, finance, professional services, government.
`IIA`	Necessary Consumption	Wage goods required to reproduce labor power. Food, textiles, basic retail, basic lodging.
`IIB`	Luxury Consumption	Discretionary goods consumed by bourgeoisie and labor aristocracy. Consumer electronics, furniture, gambling, luxury retail.
`III`	Social Reproduction	Sectors producing labor power itself. Health care, education, social services, private households, religious organizations.

Theoretical sources: Marx (1885), Shaikh & Tonak (1994), Fortunati (1981). See Tensor Hierarchy Architecture for full discussion of contested boundaries.

Department I: Means of Production 

BEA Code	Industry Name	Classification Note
`1100A1`	Farms	Agricultural machinery, seeds, fertilizer are means of production.
`1130A1`	Forestry, fishing, and related activities	Raw material extraction; industrial inputs.
`211`	Oil and gas extraction	Energy inputs consumed productively.
`212`	Mining (except oil and gas)	Mineral extraction; producer goods.
`213`	Support activities for mining	Producer services enabling extraction.
`2200A0`	Utilities	Energy infrastructure; consumed by capital.
`23`	Construction	Fixed capital formation.
`3210A0`	Wood products	Industrial wood inputs.
`321`	Wood products (structural)	Overlap code for structural applications.
`324`	Petroleum and coal products	Industrial energy and chemical feedstocks.
`325`	Chemical products (industrial)	Industrial chemicals; producer goods dominant.
`326`	Plastics and rubber products	Industrial inputs for manufacturing.
`327`	Nonmetallic mineral products	Cement, glass, ceramics; construction inputs.
`331`	Primary metals	Steel, aluminum; capital goods input.
`332`	Fabricated metal products	Industrial hardware, structural metal.
`333`	Machinery	Capital equipment; core Dept I sector.
`3340A0`	Computer and electronic products	Producer computing; semiconductors, servers.
`335`	Electrical equipment and appliances	Industrial electrical equipment.
`3360A0`	Motor vehicles, bodies, trailers, parts	Commercial vehicles dominant (boundary case; see note below).
`3370A0`	Other transportation equipment	Aircraft, ships, railroad equipment; capital goods.
`3390A0`	Miscellaneous manufacturing	Instruments, industrial goods.
`4200`	Wholesale trade	Distribution infrastructure enabling capital circulation.
`481`	Air transportation	Producer logistics.
`482`	Rail transportation	Freight rail; capital circulation.
`483`	Water transportation	Bulk freight; capital circulation.
`484`	Truck transportation	Primary domestic freight mode.
`485`	Transit and ground passenger transportation	Worker transport; enables labor reproduction at scale.
`486`	Pipeline transportation	Energy infrastructure.
`487OS`	Other transportation and support activities	Port handling, air traffic control.
`493`	Warehousing and storage	Capital circulation infrastructure.
`5110A0`	Publishing industries (except internet)	Producer information goods.
`5120A0`	Motion picture and sound recording	Boundary case; placed in I as ideological capital production.
`5130A0`	Broadcasting and telecommunications	Communication infrastructure; producer services.
`5140A0`	Data processing, internet publishing	Digital infrastructure; producer computing.
`521CI`	Federal Reserve banks, credit intermediation	Financial capital circulation.
`523`	Securities, commodity contracts	Financial capital.
`524`	Insurance carriers	Risk-pooling for capital.
`525`	Funds, trusts, and other financial vehicles	Wealth management; financial capital.
`5311A0`	Rental and leasing services	Capital asset services.
`FIRE0`	Housing (owner-occupied residential)	Treated as capital (BEA imputed rental); see boundary note below.
`5411`	Legal services	Producer legal services.
`5412`	Accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping	Producer financial services.
`5413`	Architectural, engineering, and related services	Capital project services.
`5414`	Specialized design services	Producer design.
`5415`	Computer systems design and related services	IT services for capital.
`5416`	Management, scientific, and technical consulting	Producer consulting.
`5417`	Scientific research and development	Innovation; creates future means of production.
`5418`	Advertising and related services	Realization function for capital.
`5419`	Other professional, scientific, and technical services	Producer services.
`5500A0`	Management of companies and enterprises	Coordination of capital.
`5611`	Administrative and support services	Business services.
`5612`	Waste management and remediation	Industrial waste handling.
`811`	Repair and maintenance	Capital goods maintenance.
`GSLE`	Federal government enterprises	State-owned productive capital (postal, Amtrak).
`GFG`	Federal general government	State coercive apparatus; enables capital accumulation.
`GSLG`	State and local general government	Local coercive apparatus; infrastructure.

Department IIa: Necessary Consumption 

Wage goods required to reproduce labor power—the minimum consumption bundle the proletariat requires to continue working.

BEA Code	Industry Name	Classification Note
`311FT`	Food and beverage and tobacco products	Core wage goods; worker caloric reproduction.
`313TT`	Textile mills and textile product mills	Basic clothing; worker reproduction.
`315AL`	Apparel and leather and allied products	Basic clothing manufacturing.
`4400`	Retail trade	General retail; food and basic goods dominant. See boundary note.
`7211`	Traveler accommodation (basic lodging)	Budget hotels, motels; worker accommodation.
`FOOD`	Food services and drinking places	Basic food consumption; worker reproduction.

Department IIb: Luxury Consumption 

Discretionary goods consumed by bourgeoisie and labor aristocracy. These sectors absorb surplus value without expanding the productive capacity of the economy.

BEA Code	Industry Name	Classification Note
`334`	Computer and electronic products (consumer)	Consumer electronics, smartphones; discretionary.
`336`	Motor vehicles (consumer autos)	Consumer automobile aspect; boundary with Dept I (see note).
`337`	Furniture and related products	Discretionary household goods.
`339`	Miscellaneous manufacturing (consumer)	Consumer novelties, jewelry, toys.
`4481`	Clothing stores	Fashion retail; discretionary apparel.
`4521`	Department stores	General merchandise; upper-consumption bracket.
`4529`	Other general merchandise stores	Club stores; mixed but luxury-adjacent.
`4530`	Miscellaneous store retailers	Sporting goods, hobby, specialty retail.
`713`	Amusements, gambling, and recreation	Pure surplus value consumption.
`7211A0`	Hotels and motels (luxury travel)	Luxury lodging; bourgeois consumption.
`7212`	RV parks, recreational camps, rooming/boarding	Discretionary recreation.
`7213`	Dry cleaning and laundry	Bourgeois household services.
`AREP`	Arts, entertainment, recreation (consumer)	Cultural consumption; surplus value sink.

Department III: Social Reproduction 

Sectors whose output is labor power itself—that produce, maintain, and renew the capacity to work. Most labor in this department is performed as unwaged domestic work (low g₃₃), but the commodified fraction appears in national accounts.

BEA Code	Industry Name	Classification Note
`621`	Ambulatory health care services	Outpatient care; worker health reproduction.
`622`	Hospitals	Inpatient care; emergency reproduction of labor power.
`623`	Nursing and residential care	Care for elderly/disabled; social reproduction.
`624`	Social assistance	Social services; labor power maintenance.
`6111`	Elementary and secondary schools	Credential/skill formation; core Dept III.
`6112`	Junior colleges	Postsecondary credential formation.
`6113`	Colleges, universities, and professional schools	Higher education; advanced credential formation.
`6114`	Business schools and computer training	Vocational skill formation.
`6115`	Technical and trade schools	Craft/technical skill formation.
`6116`	Other schools and instruction	Supplementary education.
`6117`	Educational support services	Administrative support for education sector.
`814`	Private households (domestic service workers)	Paid domestic labor; visible tip of unwaged iceberg.
`8139`	Religious, grant-making, civic organizations	Social cohesion; ideological reproduction.
`8131`	Religious organizations	Ideological reproduction; community social support.

Boundary Cases and Notes 

Motor vehicles (3360A0 in Dept I; 336 in Dept IIb): Two BEA codes appear in different departments. Code 3360A0 (manufacturing) is placed in Department I because the industry produces both commercial vehicles and consumer automobiles—and commercial use dominates by output value and productive function. Code 336 (retail auto sales) is in Department IIb.

Retail trade (4400 in Dept IIa) vs. specialty retail (4481, 4521, 4529, 4530 in Dept IIb): General retail (BEA 4400) includes food retail, which makes it primarily a wage-goods distributor. Luxury and discretionary specialty retailers are separated into IIb with more specific codes.

Owner-occupied housing (FIRE0 in Dept I): The BEA treats imputed owner-occupied rental income as capital output. Following Shaikh & Tonak, housing is classified as capital (Dept I) rather than consumption. This is a contested boundary: housing is simultaneously a consumption good and a capital asset. The productive capital interpretation is the default.

Future refinement: The MVP mapping uses dominant-use classification (one industry → one department). A more precise approach would use the BEA commodity-by-industry bridge tables to fractionally allocate mixed industries by output shares. This is noted in the TOML metadata but not yet implemented.

How to Update the Mapping 

The mapping is defined in:

src/babylon/economics/tensor_hierarchy/mappings/bea_to_department.toml

TOML structure:

[departments]
I   = ["1100A1", "1130A1", ...]   # List of BEA codes for Dept I
IIA = ["311FT", "313TT", ...]     # List for Dept IIa
IIB = ["334", "336", ...]         # List for Dept IIb
III = ["621", "622", ...]         # List for Dept III

[metadata]
version = "1.0.0"
date = "2026-02-26"
bea_classification = "2007 NAICS-based BEA Summary level"
reference = "..."
notes = "..."

To add or move an industry:

Find the BEA Summary code in the BEA I-O Use table column headers.
Remove it from its current department list (if present).
Add it to the correct department list.
Add a note in [metadata].notes explaining the rationale.
Re-run tests: poetry run pytest tests/unit/economics/tensor_hierarchy/.

How DefaultDepartmentAggregator reads it:

aggregator = DefaultDepartmentAggregator()
mapping = aggregator.get_default_mapping()
# mapping: {"1100A1": "I", "311FT": "IIA", "334": "IIB", "621": "III", ...}

The aggregator reads the TOML at call time (not cached at import). BEA codes not present in the mapping are silently excluded from aggregation. This is intentional: unmapped industries contribute to the ~70-industry matrix but not to the 4-department matrix.

BEA code lookup: The BEA classification (2007 NAICS-based Summary level) is documented in the BEA I-O XLSX column headers and in the BEA interactive data portal at https://www.bea.gov/industry/input-output-accounts-data.