The databases are the following:
CRSP is an acronym for the Center for Research in Security Prices
or the data which the Center collects, verifies and reports: monthly and
daily stock and bond market information. Business and economics schools
purchase annual updates of the data.
CRSP maintains the most comprehensive historical data files on the market. The unparalleled accuracy of the data files have made them a staple of academic and commercial research since 1960.
CRSP files cover common stocks listed on the NYSE, AMEX and Nasdaq Stock Markets, US Government Treasury issues, and US Mutual Funds. The Center has a wide variety of financial and economic indices (market, total return, cap-based and custom) and other statistics used to gauge the performance of the broader market and economy in general. CRSP also provides proxy graphs for 10K SEC filing, monthly cap-based reports and custom data sets and extractions.
The CRSP US Government Bond File is available in two frequencies: daily and monthly. The daily product contains data for about 3,100 marketable US Government securities traded in the secondary market and during the issued trading period from June 14, 1961 to the present. The monthly product contains data for approximately 5,000 bonds, notes, and bills since 1925. Additional CRSP files contain information on stock summaries (indices), treasury bills, maturity portfolios, fama-bliss discount bonds, Risk Free rates, cap based portfolios, S&P 500, and bond, bills, and inflation.
CRSP can be accessed via WRDS. Data may also
be retrieved through the BC network (http://econ.bc.edu).
Datastream provides significant historical data for a variety of securities markets worldwide. It also contains an extensive amount of country economic data. Datastream offers key data sets from both developed and emerging markets - equities, market indices, company accounts, macroeconomics, bonds, foreign exchange, interest rates, commodities and derivatives.
Features of Datastream
Equity prices, volumes, market capitalisation, earnings and dividend data for around 50,000 equities covering 64 developed and emerging markets with over 25 years of history for key developed markets - global equity indices covering 38 markets, 16 regions, 127 sectors spanning over 25 years of history - extensive worldwide unit trust pricing and dividend coverage for 11 countries, including over 10,000 UK trusts - over 200,000 international macroeconomic time series available with indicators for around 175 countries sourced from central banks - foreign exchange rates for over 63 currencies - over 2,000 interest rates - over 200,000 bonds from 32 markets - 19,000 warrants from over 50 markets commodities covering 1,500 spot prices and major indices.
Data easily transfers into Excel spreadsheets.
Accessibility
Available on one computer workstation in first/second year Finance Ph.D
students.
No remote access.
Updates:
This service is online. Quotes and other data are updated continuously. Underlying symbols (e.g. new companies, or new economic indicators) are entered into the database weekly.
Output Formats:
Files may immediately be dumped into Excel, simply by clicking on an Excel icon in Datastream. Excel must be open in the background for this to work. Complete downloading instructions are available in a short manual provided by the Cornell University.
WRDS data consists of historical financial information for banks, government bonds, stock exchanges, and major companies. It is intended solely for research and instructional purposes.
Accessibility
Boston College faculty, administrators, staff, and PhD students are allowed to have a WRDS account.
Accessing WRDS
WRDS may be accessed either through the web interface http://wrds.wharton.upenn.edu,
or through a UNIX login session. An accountwith user-name and password
authorization is required to access WRDS using either method. To access
through the Web, it is helpful to first read the documents located at http://wrds.wharton.upenn.edu/support.
A UNIX session is better suited for custom user programming. It is helpful to have a basic knowledge of UNIX system commands, FORTRAN programming and/or SAS software, the two software tools most commonly used to access WRDS data. Knowledge of C programming is also helpful in using the C facilities with CRSP data.
Requesting an account
The following instructions will guide you in obtaining your WRDS account.
1. Point your web browser to http://wrds.wharton.upenn.edu
2. In the center of the page, you will see a link entitled "account
request." Click on that link.
3. Click on the "new account" link and complete the Account Request
form.
4. Once your account has been created, the administrator will send
an e-mail with your Log-in and Password information to your WRDS Representative
(Amy LaCombe, lacombea@bc.edu), who will forward the information along
to you. This is part of the Authentication Process to ensure that no one
outside your university attempts to receive an account.
You can contact WRDS research and technical support at wrds-support@wharton.upenn.edu with any problems, questions, or suggestions concerning WRDS database access or data query, or programming in SAS, Fortran, or C.
A Getting Started with WRDS Manual is available.