Research Resources

The CRSP/Compustat Merged database (CCM) provides CRSP and Compustat subscribers with a convenient way to link CRSP market and corporate action data with Compustat fundamental data by allowing CRSP users to search by Permno, Permco, and or GVKEY identifiers.

Special Note: WRDS accounts will only be generated for current faculty, currently enrolled students (Ph.D., masters, and undergraduate), and selected current staff of UNC-Chapel Hill.

To fill out an on-line account request form go to https://wrds-www.wharton.upenn.edu/ and click on the “Register” tab in the upper right portion of the screen.

Data Planet Statistical Datasets provides easy access to an extensive repository of standardized and structured statistical data. The over 12.6 billion datasets in Data Planet provide immediate access to data presented in charts, maps, graphs, and table form, via multiple points of entry. Data comes from more than 70 U.S. and international sources including: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, China Data Institute, Deutsche Borse Group, European Commission, the World Bank, and more. Subjects covered by the data include: economics, crime, health, population, energy, the environment and more. The time period covered varies. For more details consult the users guide here https://data-planet.libguides.com/statisticaldatasets

Special Note: vendor does not permit access from IP addresses outside the United States

Data-Axle is a collection of databases that provide directory information on more than

64 million U.S. businesses,

160 million U.S. residents

1.2 million U.S. healthcare providers.

The U.S. Business database offers a number of different search points, including company name, yellow page headings, NAICS and SIC codes, executive names, estimated sales volume, number of employees, stock exchange ticker symbols and  Fortune 1000 ranking. There is also geography based searching by state, city, metro area, zip codes, a radius centered on a address or latitude and longitude point, or within the boundaries drawn on a map by the user.

Similar search options are available for the U.S. healthcare providers and U.S. residential databases.

Search results are downloadable in limited, 200 records, quantities

In July 2019, data.census.gov became the primary way to access Census Bureau data, including upcoming releases from the 2018 American Community Survey, 2017 Economic Census, 2020 Census and more. As of July 1, 2019, all new data (and data previously released on American FactFinder) is being released on this new data platform. This resource provides data from most US Census Bureau surveys and programs. Access data from the American Community Survey, the Decennial Census, the Economic Census, annual Population Estimates, and annual economic surveys.

From the U.S. Census “Looking for help on how to start your search for Census Bureau data on data.census.gov? Watch this Census Academy video to explore two easy options to navigate the site.”

WRDS describes DealScan.””the world’s pre-eminent source for extensive and reliable information on the global commercial loan market”. The DealScan database contains comprehensive historical information on loan pricing and contracts details, terms, and conditions. From the August 2021 update, DealScan revamped its database structure and revised its contents. Therefore, WRDS launched a new DealScan database while still providing access to the previous legacy database.”

DealScan is accessed through a Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) account.

Special Note: WRDS accounts will only be generated for current faculty, currently enrolled students (Ph.D., masters, and undergraduate), and selected current staff of UNC-Chapel Hill.

To fill out an on-line account request form go to https://wrds-www.wharton.upenn.edu/ and click on the “Register” tab in the upper right portion of the screen.

Indexes and abstracts articles from more than 400 journals, essays in collective volumes, conference proceedings, dissertations, books, book reviews, and several working paper archives covering the world’s economic literature. There is some full-text available for articles found with this database. This is one of the most important indexes for economics subjects. It is published by the American Economics Association.

The EDPNC is focused on recruiting new businesses to North Carolina and supporting existing businesses in NorthCarolina through a variety of programs. These programs include: site identification and selection for expansion and/or relocation, incentive programs, export assistance, start-up assistance and more.

From the Securities & Exchange Commission. This site provides access to the full-text of 10-K, Proxies and other reports publicly traded companies are required to file with the SEC.

Eikon is a new name and interface for the former Datastream product. Eikon provides daily pricing, volume, and performance information on over 37,000 equities from 57 countries, 12,000 market stock and bond indices, 87,000 macroeconomic series from the International Financial Statistics of the World Bank, OECD and other central statistical offices, over 2,000 daily foreign exchange rates, 1,000 daily and weekly interest rate series, 68,000 fixed income instruments from 23 countries and more than 260 financial and commodity futures and options contracts. Series are acquired from national governments and banks, the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund, OECD, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and other international agencies. Additional features include commodity prices, debt and equity information, exchange rates, interest rates, stock market indices, futures, options, and much more. Time coverage varies, but many series are available in daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual intervals for up to 10 years some are available for longer periods.

Special Instructions: Kenan-Flagler students and faculty should contact researchtools@kenan-flagler.unc.edu for access instructions. All other UNC users may contact Davis Library for access instructions.

Contains indexing and full-text of articles and other content from more than 125 magazines and academic journals and from more than 135 books on entrepreneurial topics, Also includes Datamonitor case studies, and 600 videos with transcripts and related articles from the Harvard Seminar Series and Vator.TV. Covers topics including:

• Business Planning
• Communications
• Innovations
• Risk Taking
• Raising Capital
• Marketing
• Product Development
• Management
• Organizational Behavior

The Entrepreneurship Research & Policy Network (ERPN) is one of a number of specialized research networks within the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). It features abstracts and full-text papers from research covering the intersection of entrepreneurship with other subject areas such as economics, finance, law and the social sciences. ( Source Davis Library)

This database is one of if not the most important index covering the field of education. ERIC covers all aspects of education including EDUCATION OF BUSINESS STUDENTS and EDUCATION AS A BUSINESS. Material in this database could be a journal article, a chapter in a book, a book, or even a lesson plan submitted to one of the 16 clearing houses that collaborate to publish ERIC.

Free access to more than 90 million patent documents from over 90 patent-granting authorities worldwide, The collection contains information about inventions and technical developments from 1836 to today.  (Source Davis Library web page)

Esri Business Analyst Online (BAO) is a Web-based solution that makes custom site evaluation and market analysis fast and easy. Utilizing extensive demographic, consumer spending, and business data, BAO provides detailed information and insights about consumers, their lifestyles and buying behavior, and businesses in a given market area.

Use is limited to students and faculty as needed for classes and research projects undertaken as part of coursework for a degree program.

Users must request an Esri account.

The ETF (Exchange Traded Funds) Global database contains a large set of data on Exchange Traded Funds including bid ask and close pricing, expenses, tracking indexes, assets under management, data and funds flows, historical daily holding and ownership data and more.

ETF Global is accessed through a Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) account.

Special Note: WRDS accounts will only be generated for current faculty, currently enrolled students (Ph.D., masters, and undergraduate), and selected current staff of UNC-Chapel Hill.

To fill out an on-line account request form go to https://wrds-www.wharton.upenn.edu/ and click on the “Register” tab in the upper right portion of the screen.

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A great source for analysis and statistics on industries, markets, and countries from Euromonitor contains historical data starting in 1995 and 5 years of forecasts of market size (units and value) data for 330 consumer products in many countries.

Euromonitor Passport also contains

Historical and forecast economic, demographic and marketing statistics from 1977 to 2020.

Historic and forecasts of consumer lifestyle statistics including disposable income, consumer expenditure trends, eating and drinking habits, home ownership statistics and health data for 71 countries.

Key political and economic indicators for 205 countries.

More than 4,500 industry and market reports on global and country levels.

Special Note: Because of our license agreement, you will be asked for your UNC Onyen and password every time you use GMID, both on and off campus.

Find information on some 3 Million companies in 35 European countries. Search by company name, industry, country, or region of country. Each entry includes addresses, phone numbers, maybe an email contact, maybe a map of the location. You must select one of 26 languages before searching.

Formed by the merger of EU Market Access Database and  the EUI Trade Helpdesk. provides information on market access and trade barriers as well as trade statistics between the countries of the European Union and the rest of the world.

Some sections of the web site may be restricted to people in one of the EU member countries or in one of the Acceding or Candidate Countries.

Information on European Union tax and customs issues. Including personal and company taxation, Tariffs and excise taxes, VAT (Value Added Taxes), car taxes, and customs procedures and controls.

European Patent Office is a free patent searching service provided by the European Patent Organization. Coverage is all patent applications published in the past two years by EPO national offices. Full bibliographic details are displayed, with links to PDF page images for patents from the EPO, France, Germany, Switzerland, UK, USA and WIPO.

In an Event Study the researcher is looking at what happens to a the pricing and returns of a particular stock or group of stocks around a specific date. This date may be when a specific event occurred such as a change in CEO or when a new tax regulation or other regulation was announced or took effect. Eventus is recognized by most of the academic research community as the industry’s premier database for conducting event studies.. Eventus performs event studies using data read directly from CRSP stock databases or pre-extracted from any source. The Eventus system includes utility programs to convert calendar dates to CRSP trading day numbers, convert CUSIP identifiers to CRSP permanent identification numbers, and extract event study cumulative or compounded abnormal returns for cross-sectional analysis.  (Source WRDS)

Eventus is accessed through a Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) account.

Special Note: WRDS accounts will only be generated for current faculty, currently enrolled students (Ph.D., masters, and undergraduate), and selected current staff of UNC-Chapel Hill.

To fill out an on-line account request form go to https://wrds-www.wharton.upenn.edu/ and click on the “Register” tab in the upper right portion of the screen

Articles, reports, and statistics on the state of entrepreneurship in the United States.

This site is sponsored by the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

An Excellent starting point for finding information from the United States government on importing and exporting products into or out of the United States.

Factiva provides tools for searching and monitoring general news and company, industry, and other business information. The sources include newspapers, academic journals, trade journals, popular press magazines, transcripts of radio and television broadcasts and newswires. Factiva includes full-text of The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and more than 10,000 other sources from more than 150 countries in more than 22 languages. Most publications are updated on the day of publication. But more than 400 of the 600+ newswires are updated continuously.

Special Notes:

Not all sources are available to Academic accounts. If you receive 0 results for any given Source search, it is likely that the source is not available to you.

UNC-Chapel Hill is allowed only FIVE (5) users at any time so PLEASE use the Logout button in the top right corner of the screen when you are finished.

The time out period for inactive viewing is 10 minutes.

Factset is a complete solution for real-time analytics, research, and market data. FactSet’s business is built on the creative use of technology and dedication to client service. Their tools enable UNC Kenan-flagler students  to control and customize data and they are considered to be the gold standard in the financial industry.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Accounting Standards Codification® (Codification or ASC) is the single source of authoritative nongovernmental U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (US GAAP). The Codification is effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. (source vendor web site)

The official daily publication for Rules, Proposed Rules, and Notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as Executive Orders and other Presidential Documents.

Do you want to know anything about the Federal Reserve? This web site is a good place to start. There is a brief history of the Fed, links to all the other Federal Reserve District Banks, links to current and historical financial and monetary statistics.

There is also a link to an electronic editions of Federal Reserve publications including: the Beige Book; a publication that gathers anecdotal information on current economic conditions in U.S. as a whole and each of the 12 Federal Reserve Districts, click on “Monetary Policy” then on Reports then on “Beige Book.” There are also links to the Minutes of Federal Open Market Committee and the FOMC statements issued after each meeting.

An extensive collection of links to international trade and importing and exporting resources that are availalbe on the Web. Some of the links are to free resources others are to subscription resources. AFTER FREE REGISTRATION You can search the collection by keyword, or scroll down the page and browse a list of categories.

Content includes links to state tax agencies’ home pages, links to each state’s tax forms and electronic filing sites, general information on state tax structures, information about upcoming meetings and workshops, data on proposed federal tax changes that could affect state revenues and information of state level income sales and excise taxes.

Complete online fully-searchable facsimile edition of the Financial Times offers the complete run of the London edition of the paper, from its first issue to the end of 2010. Every individual article, advertisement and market listing is included and shown individually and in the context of the full page and issue of the day. Special supplements and the FT Magazine are included.

FDO Professional provides subscribers with access to timely, comprehensive information on grant makers and their grants. Included is a database of the entire universe of over 140,000 foundations, corporate giving programs, and grant making public charities in the U.S.; a database of over 4,000 sponsoring companies, offering a quick pathway to corporate funders; a database of over 9.5 million grants; and a keyword-searchable database of over 1 million recently filed IRS Forms 990 and 990-PF.

Access to this resource is provided by the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations at UNC

(Source Davis Library web page)

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Governmental Accounting Research System™ (GARS) provides access to all U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for state and local governments. It includes material from the GASB’s Codification, Original Pronouncements, and Comprehensive Implementation Guide, as well as related resources and tools. (source vendor web site)

More than just a new name, new data is included such as company, consumer, product, market and country specific “Insight” and analysis for consumer packaged goods. The former Product Launch Analytics database contains Information on new consumer packaged goods with more than one million new skus for new foods, beverages, health & beauty aids, household, pet and tobacco products from around the world. More than 20 searchable data fields per report help you track launches by brand and product name, manufacturer, product category, health claim, flavor, ingredient and more. Mixing and matching these characteristics creates thousands of search possibilities. View full color product photos, run statistical reports, scan breakthrough innovations and hyperlink to manufacturer websites.

Special Note: Users may register using a UNC email address to create a “personal workspace” that allows for saving searches.

Web site from Michigan State University that is a portal site for all kinds of trade, export, and country information.

Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. (source: Davis Library)

This version of Google Scholar links through the  university’s network allowing UNC-Chapel Hill users to find the full-text of materials available in UNC-Chapel Hill’s electronic collections.

An EBook that explains how to plan and develop a good proposal, what reviewers look for in applications, and changes at NIH and NSF.

GreenFILE provides access to materials on the human impact on the environment. Sources include scholarly, governmental, and general interest articles and books. It represents research from fields such as agriculture, education, law, health, and technology. Topics include climate change, green building, pollution, renewable energy, recycling, and many related topics. (Source Davis Library)

A collection of guides prepared by the Law Library of Congress Public Services Division, is an annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available online. It includes selected links to useful and reliable sites for legal information.

A glossary of more than 8,000 finance terms. The definitions are clear and concise. There are more than 18,000 hyperlinks between words in definitions and corresponding glossary entries. There is no true search functionality for this site. Once the user has selected a letter from the alphabetic listings, they can either scroll down and browse the list or use the “FIND” function within their web browser.

“This definitive reference work contains more than 37,000 annual time series of quantitative historical information covering virtually every quantifiable dimension of American history: population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, governance, and international relations, all from the earliest times to the present.” Essays place the data into historical context, and the data can be downloaded in Excel or CVS. source: vendor website

See ProQuest Business Market Research Collection

Information for more then 40,000 companies, including company overview, industry information, key company executives, and for publicly traded firms upto 3 years of historical financials.

Provides both summary and individual analyst forecasts of company earnings, cash flows, and other important financial items, as well as buy-sell-hold recommendations. In 2000, I/B/E/S was integrated with Thomson Financial / First Call. In 2012 First Call was discontinued.

I/B/E/S is accessed through a Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) account.

Special Note: WRDS accounts will only be generated for current faculty, currently enrolled students (Ph.D., masters, and undergraduate), and selected current staff of UNC-Chapel Hill.

To fill out an on-line account request form go to https://wrds-www.wharton.upenn.edu/ and click on the “Register” tab in the upper right portion of the screen.