Knowledge Base

Below are commonly used sources in academic research for company fundamentals.

Public Companies

These databases are from different vendors and so have slightly different coverage due to different data collection methods (see this paper that compares them). All are available in WRDS – see WRDS access help.

• Compustat – From Standard & Poors (S&P). It is the easiest to link to stock data in CRSP. See how to download data from Compustat. Typically used for U.S. and Canadian firms, but some data has worldwide coverage.
• Osiris – From Bureau van Dijk (BvD). Has worldwide coverage.
• Worldscope – From LSEG (formerly Thomson Reuters), and previously owned by FactSet. Has worldwide coverage.

Private Companies

Private company fundamentals and information is harder to find. Some options are:

• Orbis – From Bureau van Dijk (BvD). Has worldwide coverage.
  • Orbis (in WRDS) – see WRDS access help – 10 year rolling backfile and researchers should confirm if there is survivorship bias.
  • Orbis Historical – see Orbis Historical access help – Has up to 30 years of coverage for some companies.

Startups

Similarly to private companies more generally, information on startups is challenging to collect and access. Some options are:

• LSEG Workspace – see LSEG Workspace access help – Has worldwide coverage.
• PitchBook (Snapshot Files, Non-Current) (in WRDS) – see WRDS access help – Only includes a subset of information available in the PitchBook.com platform. Infrequently updated and not updated in real-time. Has worldwide coverage.

Establishment-Level Data

See our Establishment-Level Data page.