Posts

Empirical research in accounting and finance has primarily relied on structured data from tabulated contents in regulatory filings and security trading records. The lack of systematic ways to retrieve information from unstructured data has impeded researchers from utilizing a tremendous amount of information embedded in regulatory filings and other similar textual data. Though academics in accounting and finance have predominantly employed NLP statistical methods based on bag-of-words, the world vector that enables state-of-the-art NLP models is still new ground for many. This article demonstrates the undeniable potential of word vectors in accounting and financial applications through a case study. [Full Article]

The integration of Datastream and Worldscope databases at the Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) offers researchers a simple solution to bypass the cumbersome data collection and preparation process for global empirical research. This study guide proposes a clean approach to link these two databases through Refinitiv's Quantitative Mapping facilities. We then discuss various details about constructing stock returns through Datastream Return Index (RI). [Full Article]

In empirical finance and accounting literature, CRSP and Compustat have been the two most widely used database since early 90’s. From 2001 to 2015, the combined web queries of those two databases together occupy more than 80% web traffic at WRDS. In this WRDS Research Application, we provide a general guidance to link those two databases at security level. [Full Article]

While multiple data vendors have claimed to offer a comprehensive international coverage of accounting and financial items for firms worldwide, there is a growing demand for better understanding of the differences across international databases. This paper compares several international accounting databases on WRDS to address this traditional obstacle confronting empirical researchers. [Full Articles]

Through years, I have been asked by students, peers, and colleagues to post some tutorial online to explain how to use alternative ways to access data on WRDS Server. In fact, my UX colleagues actually tapped some video of me back in 2016, so that I found it and post it here. WRDS has advanced a lot since then, but some basic features are still the same. BTW, I am not a fan of my own talk. Thank you so much for watching. [bilibili.com]