Business: Finance research
This guide provides information sources to help you conduct research on finance.
- Company Financials
- Industry Financials
- Government Finance
- International Finance
- Personal Finance
- Citing Sources
Company Financials
Eikon and Datastream
Eikon provides access to real time market data, news, fundamental data, analytics, trading and messaging tools. Datastream provides data on worldwide equities, market indices, economic indicators, fixed income securities and associated indices, commodities and derivatives. Eikon and Datastream can be accessed remotely. We have a number of logins for booking. Please check User ID availability, contact Business Librarians to book a time, get login credentials and instructions for using these resources.
WRDS: Wharton Research Data Services
WRDS includes databases such as: COMPUSTAT, CRSP, Dow Jones Averages, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Penn World Tables, Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX), Thomson-Reuters Institutional Holdings (13F), TRACE, and more. It is intended for in-depth financial and accounting research. Registration is required for access.
This resource is a private equity and venture capital database covering a wide range of firms as well as startups. Search thousands of private equity and venture capital deals by hundreds of criteria. Users need to create a personal user account on Pitchbook with their Laurier email address following instructions under Access Requirement. These accounts are deleted every year on June 30th and need to be recreated. Within Pitchbook, "Help Center" at the top right corner provides tutorials on how to run basic and advanced searches.
Contains ratio analysis and up to 15 years of financial statements for public companies worldwide. Data can be downloaded into Excel. Enter company name or ticker symbol in the search box, then click "Go" > select the Company Financials Tab.
CFMRC/TSX Database Annual Update
Contains Toronto Stock Exchange historical data, including monthly stock data since 1950 and daily data since 1975, daily and monthly index data, and interest and foreign exchange rates. Additional information relating to earnings, betas, and volume is also included. Access via the CHASS platform maintained by the University of Toronto. On CHASS, click the link under "Latest Edition" to start.
Includes Canadian public company profiles and public disclosure documents (e.g. annual reports).
Coverage includes a few years of financial statements, financial ratios, stock price activity, share ownership, and more. Select the Companies/Markets tab at the top of the screen and then select ‘Company’. Enter company name in the search box under Get Company Snapshot, select the right company if more than one company are displayed. Click on "Financial Results" from the left column on Company Snapshot page.
Enter company name in the search box > select "Company Profiles" from the drop-down menu. On the company listing page, select the company match and you will be directed to the company profile page. Click on "Financials" on the left-side panel.
Contains ratio analysis and 3 years of financial statements for public companies worldwide. Click on "Find a Company" and enter a company name.
Industry Financials
Canada only:
Presents financial data for small and medium-sized businesses (revenues ranges of $30 thousand to $5 million and $5 million to $20 million) in more than 1000 industries in Canada, including more than 30 performance benchmarks. Reports feature statistics for profitable and non-profitable businesses that includes net profits and net losses, and detailed financial data on revenues and expenses, industry averages for income statements and balance sheet items as well as financial ratios. You can follow steps to create a report for a specific industry.
Presents and analyzes industry data on a number of economic and financial indicators using the latest annual data sources from Statistics Canada, including average revenue and average hourly wage. Enter a keyword or NAICS code into the search box.
Financial Performance Indicators
Contains key financial ratios by industry groupings compiled from the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS 2007) from 1994 to 2011. Statistics Canada continues to provide information on Canadian businesses through alternative data sources. Information on specific financial ratios continues to be available through the annual Financial and Taxation Statistics for Enterprises program: Table 33-10-0006-01; the Quarterly Survey of Financial Statements: Tables 33-10-0007-01 and 33-10-0008-01.
Industry Norms & Key Business Ratios
Comprises of a set of business ratios, measured as relationships between companies' balance sheet and income statement categories, across industries as per Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes. Coverage from 2004 to 2011 and available online at CHASS.
Canada, U.S. and International:
Provides Canadian, US and Chinese industry reports. Enter industry keywords, NAICS code, or company name in the search box. Data on revenue, wage, cost structure, profits, etc. are included within the report.
Captures industry averages and ratios. Click on the Companies/Markets tab on the top of the screen and then select Industry. Choose an industry.
Enter industry keyword in the search box > select "Industry Profiles" from the drop-down menu. On the results page, refine the results by sector, geography or date if necessary. Open the industry analysis report and click View Online, View as PDF or Export Full Report. Total market value and revenue data, and financials of major players in this industry are included within the report.
Contains composite financial data, including ratios, on major types of industries mostly US-based. Arranged by NAICS code, this work makes it possible to compare one company's performance relative to other companies in the same industry. Search for industries using either their name (or partial name) or by NAICS code.
Mergent (D&B) Key Business Ratios
Features 14 key business ratios for public and private companies in 800 lines of business in the U.S. and Canada. Search data by SIC and NAICS code, line of business, asset range and year. Input financial data and instantly compare any balance sheet with industry benchmarks.
Key stats and ratios are included in industry profiles. To access, click on the "Markets" tab at the top of the screen and select your industry under the Industries subheading.
Government Finance
Contains thousands of tables and reports from all fields and provides fast access to a large range of the latest statistics available in Canada, such as government revenue and expenditure, interest rate, exchange rate, etc. Type keywords in the search box. Filter by subject, geography or survey if applicable before running a search. To use a data table, click on the title and use "Add/Remove Data" tab to get a customized report. Tutorial: How to use the data tables.
Provides access to the data series from which many of the Statistics Canada publications are derived.
Find banking and financial market statistics, surveys as well as policy papers.
International Finance
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis - FRED: Economic Data
Provides historical U.S. economic and financial data, including daily U.S. interest rates, monetary and business indicators, exchange rates, balance of payments and regional economic data.
Provides access to international macroeconomic and financial time series for around 175 countries (includes IMF and OECD data). This resource can be accessed remotely through Excel add-in with Eikon Desktop. We have a number of logins for booking. Please check User ID availability, contact Business Librarians to book a time, get login credentials and instructions for access.
Includes data on government finance, international financial statistics, balance of payments, and much more. Major economic and financial indicators are available on annual, quarterly or monthly basis where applicable. Click on the Data Topics tab and then select one database, e.g. International Financial Statistics.
A wide variety of socio-economic indicators at the annual, quarterly and monthly frequencies for OECD member countries. Click on the Statistics tab, and search statistics by keyword, country, indicator or select a database.
The primary World Bank collection of global development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. Select countries, series and time, then click the Apply Changes button. Data are available on an annual basis only.
Statistics from all the major UN sources. Click Datamarts tab. On the Explore page, select Datasets and click the +sign in front of the database name to find the datasets of your interest; or select Sources or Topics to search data.
Personal Finance
Contains microdata from Statistics Canada, Elections Canada, as well as polling data. Click on Browse at the top right of the homepage, browse the categories on the left-side panel and select a resource. For instance, in the Consumer Surveys folder, Survey of Financial Security (SFS) provides data on financial assets, debts, networth and financial behaviours and attitudes of survey participants. You can select variables and subsets from the survey and download data files in Stata, SPSS, or other formats.
Citing Sources
The Laurier Library provides guidance on citing in different styles (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.) and by subject including government publications and data and statistics.
Developed by business librarians at Bronfman Business Library at York University, this guide provides great examples of citing business resources including industry reports, company reports, analyst reports from databases.
Citing Economics and Financial Databases
Includes examples of in-text citation and reference citation for financial and economics databases