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Ownership Studies: The Data Source Does Matter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Ronald C. Anderson
Affiliation:
Williams School of Commerce, Economics and Politics, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA 24450
D. Scott Lee
Affiliation:
Department of Finance, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843–4218

Abstract

We examine the fit between the ownership data provided by four surrogate databases and the data collected from proxy statements. We discover an unambiguous pecking order among the surrogates relative to the benchmark ownership statistics of corporate proxy statements. Corporate Text is first, followed in descending order by Compact Disclosure, Value Line, and Spectrum. Further tests show that reporting discrepancies in the Value Line and Spectrum databases could affect economic inferences drawn from regressions using their ownership data. A field guide describing each data source's reporting conventions, formats, and strategies for data aggregation may be downloaded from the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis' web site (http://webenu.washington.edu/~jfqa/hold/andeapdx.pdf).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © School of Business Administration, University of Washington 1997

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