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Finance Research Scholars' Toolbox

This Guide is for the Department of Finance Faculty and Doctoral Students

Firm Performance

Database Platforms Modules Content Data Match Time-Series Units Scope & Years Covered Data Extraction/ Download Formats Suggested Research Level
Bloomberg Bloomberg Corporate, Equity, Bonds Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Securities Prices, EPS, Market Cap, WCC CUSIP, TICKER Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually International; 1990- present for active securities Screen grabs, limited downloading with Excel plug-in (note: Bloomberg is only in Market Information Lab) 3rd year courses upward for finance students; doctoral, faculty
Bureau Van Dijk WRDS, *flat files Amadeus, Orbis, Osiris Income Statement, Balance Sheet TICKER, NAICs Annually, quarterly International; 2007- previous to current year FTP, Excel, CVS, SAS, SPSS Doctoral, faculty

*Aria Novanto (novianto@illinois.edu) can provide access to flatfiles
CompuStat WRDS

Includes Global and ExeuComp

Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Limited Security Prices CUSIP, TICKER, SIC Annually, quarterly US, Global, 1950- previous to current year Excel, CVS, SAS, SPSS Specialized masters classes, doctoral, faculty
CRSP WRDS CRSP US Daily Stocks CUSIP, TICKER, SIC Annually, monthly, quarterly 1952- previous to current year Excel, CVS, SAS, SPSS Specialized masters, doctoral, faculty
I/B/E/S  WRDS   IEPS TICKER SIC, NAICs  monthly, quarterly, annually 2010- present CVS, Excel add-in All classes, doctoral, faculty
LSEG/
Refinitiv Workspace
 Workspace   Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Securities Prices, EPS CUSIP, TICKER, SIC Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually varies Excel add-in

doctoral, faculty.  
Note: anyone wanting to use the SDC modules for M&A, New Issues, or JV needs to e-mail Bis@library.illinois.edu.  Number of users allowed is very limited. 

 

Bloomberg Professional Services

Bloomberg terminals are located at the Market Information Lab (MIL) in the Business Instructional Facility located at 515 East Gregory Drive, Champaign.

Information about the Bloomberg Professional Service is available here

Mergers and Acquisitions (SDC Platinum)

SDC Platinum is a suite of databases produced by LSEG/ Refinitiv, formerly Thomson Reuters. It is used for event studies or time-series observations/transactions, mainly for strategy, but also for organizational studies. Illinois has access to following databases in the suite and their time coverage:

  • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • US Targets, 1979-last 30 days of the current year
    • International Targets, 1985-last 30 days of the current year
  • Joint Ventures and Alliances
    • 1988-last 30 days of the current year
  • New Issues
    • U.S. Domestic Public Offer, 1970 to present.
    • International (Euro & International Markets), 1983 to present.
    • Asian Pacific Domestic, 1991 to present

SDC is available for UI - Urbana current students and faculty to use for academic purposes on extensive time-series secondary business research.  Alums and community users are not allowed to use it due to licensing agreements.  

You will need to fill out a short form indicating which SDC modules you will need and the length of time needed for the project or discovery research.  This is due to the limited amount of users that can access the Workspace platform; in addition, there is a limit on SDC modules. 

Appointment to learn how to use the database is highly recommended.  It is not intuitive.  Email BIS@library.illinois for a consultation.  

(NOTE: Please break down large data sets into smaller chunks. Otherwise the download will time out. Start by choosing a 5 year window and a few industries.)

To inquire further please contact: bis@library.illinois.edu

WRDS

The Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) repository consists of many datasets in the areas of accounting, economics, and finance available in a web interface and can be downloaded into many formats, including SAS.  WRDS acts as a subscription gateway or a shell to other subscription datasets.  The data are maintained and supported by Wharton staff. The data modules Illinois subscribes to include the following.

  • Audit AnalyticsAccess detailed audit information on over 1,200 accounting firms and 15,000 publicly registered companies. Know who is auditing whom and how much they are paying for what services. Create reports by auditor, fees, location, industry, etc.
  • Bureau Van Djik- has balance sheets and income statements for private and public companies around the world.
  • CRSP (Center for Research Securities and Prices)maintains the most comprehensive collection of security price, return, and volume data for the NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ stock markets. Additional CRSP files provide stock indices, beta- and cap-based portfolios, treasury bond and risk-free rates, and mutual fund databases. It also provides CRSP/Compustat Merged Database, a database that simplifies matching COMPUSTAT financial data to the CRSP security price data.  Note: not every section within CRSP is subscribed to.  
  • ExecuCOMPoffers executive compensation data including current, historical, total compensation, executive options and compensation of industry peers. Selected company financial information enables one to compare executive pay versus company performance, revealing previously hard-to-find information. The ExecuComp database includes detailed breakouts of compensation data under the pre-2006 reporting rules so that one can research historical compensation trends. Published by COMPUSTAT, part of the Capital IQ module.
  • I/B/E/Scontain historical earnings estimates. 
  • Institutional Holdings and Insiders Data- supplies data from 13F, 144A, and Rule 10b5 filings.
  • ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services)- provides executive compensation performance metrics, goals and payout structure. Includes peer data for benchmarking. 
  • MSCI/KLD - Social performance metrics only 
  • NYSE TAQdatabase contains intraday transactions data (trades and quotes) for all securities listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and American Stock Exchange (AMEX), as well as Nasdaq National Market System (NMS) and SmallCap issues.
  • OptionMetrics- a comprehensive source of historical price and implied volatility data for the US equity and index options markets. Encompassing more than six years of data, Ivy DB OptionMetrics contains historical prices of options and their associated underlying instruments, correctly calculated implied volatilities, and option sensitivities.
  • SEC Analytics- provides parsing functionality of SEC filings. 

 

In addition, some financial indexes and econometric databases are available that are part of the overall WRDS database:

  • Bank Regulatory
  • Blockholders
  • CBOE Indexes
  • DMEF
  • Dow Jones
  • FDIC
  • Fama French, Momentum, and Liquidity
  • Federal Reserve Bank Reports
  • PHLX
  • Penn World Tables
  • SEC Disclosure of Order Execution
  • TRACE

To register:  Gies faculty and doctoral students may sign up for an account here.  Please e-mail Matias Carrasco Kind in Gies Disruption & Innovation for account information if for some reason your registration confirmation did not appear in your regular e-mail inbox or spam folder.  Master's students will need their instructors to set up a class account in order to use it for course assignments.