Taking a class that requires expensive statistical software? Maybe you use R or Python and your laptop just broke. Current Wharton students (plus staff and faculty) have alternatives that won’t cost extra.
Continue readingModeling performance of firms in China? Use CSMAR (China Stock Market & Accounting Research) to gather data on China’s stock markets and listed companies.
As of July 1st, Bloomberg is available on campus, as it was prior to Covid 19. It is no longer available remotely. You can access Bloomberg at the physical terminals located in Lippincott Library or in Huntsman Hall.
For those working away from campus, there are alternative resources available remotely, such as Refinitiv Workspace and S&P Capital IQ, which may provide similar information.
Refinitiv Workspace, which covers financial market information, is a web-based application. While on the go, researchers can access the information they need, like stock and equity prices. For example, to find fixed income data, select Markets and then choose Fixed Income. You can then drill into areas like bonds, loans and credit default swaps.
S&P Capital IQ also provides financial market information. Type in a company name to get started. Use the filters on the left to find information such as balance sheet data, investments, and relationships to suppliers and customers. You can also screen for companies by using the screening tool. Refinitiv has a similar function.
For more information about any of these resources, please contact Lippincott Library for assistance.
We look forward to seeing you in the Yablon Financial Resources Lab located in Lippincott Library.
Penn researchers have access to PitchBook, a popular private capital markets resource, via its native interface. However, Individual users are subject to download limits of 10 daily/25 monthly rows of company, deal, or fund data, as well as 10 daily/25 monthly rows of people data. For researchers needing more downloads, Wharton Research Data Services, or WRDS, offers PitchBook private equity, venture capital, and additional private placements data.
PitchBook data available in WRDS covers all aspects of private capital raising, featuring more than 1.6 million deals, 3 million companies including more than 660,000 private companies, 31,000 funds, and 300,000 investors. Deals provide a transaction-level view, fund data focuses on each fund held by an investment firm, and the company and investor data is presented at the business entity level. Though much of the data in PitchBook reflects only the most recent update available, also referred to as “header” data, more comprehensive data begins in the late 1990s/early 2000s, with 1% of historical coverage prior to 1992 increasing to 5% by 2000 and 10% by 2004. WRDS is developing snapshot integration that will begin to create a “history” of PitchBook header data.
Datasets from PitchBook are organized on the WRDS platform as follows: Venture Capital North America, Venture Capital Rest of World, Private Equity North America, Private Equity Rest of World, Other Data North America, and Other Data Rest of World. Within each dataset, the following queries are available: Company, Deal, Fund, and Investor. Company variables include ticker and Central Index Key (CIK) identifiers, industry descriptions and codes, and financing details. Deal variables include dates of deal announcement and completion, amount of capital invested, deal status, percentage of stake acquired, transaction categorization, detailed transaction summary, and valuation measures. If applicable, IPO details are available. CEO biographies and education summaries are also retrieved through a Deal query.
Variables in the Fund query include fund preferences, a breakout table of the fund’s direct investments, and whether the fund received investment capital from a Small Business Investment Company, a privately owned and managed investment fund licensed and regulated by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Investor query variables include investor and summary-level fund details, investment activity, and aspects of investor targets.
In addition to the four primary queries, there are 15 “relation” queries, each focusing on two categories of variables. Researchers interested in a list of a particular company’s competitors will be interested in the Company Competitor Relation query, while those examining deals entered into by certain investors will find the Deal Investor Relation query useful. There are even relation queries for deals and their tranches and deals and their beneficiaries.
From a query page, use the Data Preview tab to view the first ten rows of data for selected variables and conditional statements from the chosen data table. From the Data Preview page, the first 1,000 rows of data can be downloaded directly in xslx, api, or json format. Alternatively, click the Access All Data button on the Data Preview page to open SAS/Studio at WRDS, a web-based version of SAS, to access all data.
PitchBook documentation includes a spec file containing variable definitions, comments, and sample data. The WRDS Overview of Pitchbook page features a visual representation of PitchBook dataset organization, database usage notes, and guidance for linking PitchBook data to other datasets.
Whether you want to track company growth, explore company financing or deals, or investigate investors, consider using PitchBook in WRDS. Contact Lippincott Library for assistance.
The seventh installment of Datapoints’ Research Spotlight series features a paper co-authored by Wharton Real Estate faculty member Sophie Calder-Wang. Published in the Journal of Finance Economics 142, “And the children shall lead: Gender diversity and performance in venture capital” uses data related to the gender of venture capital partners’ children to analyze what promotes gender diversity in hiring and whether a diverse workforce leads to better firm performance and investment returns.
The authors used Preqin to retrieve data on funds raised and fund returns for a portion of the firms in their sample. Preqin provides comprehensive coverage of the private equity industry, including information on various types of investments—buyouts, venture capital, distressed investing, mezzanine, etc.—as well as fund performance, fundraising, fund managers, and more.
For more information on using Preqin, please contact a Lippincott Librarian.
World Tariff Profiles is an annual publication jointly published by the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Trade Centre (ITC), and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Available in English, French, and Spanish, this publication includes data on tariffs and non-tariff measures imposed by WTO members and other economies worldwide. More than 170 countries and customs territories are represented. Each volume also features a special topic. Recent topics include “Non-Tariff Measures: Estimating Analytical Indicators Using UNCTAD’s Trade Analysis Information Systems (TRAINS)” (2021), “Market Access for Medical Goods and COVID-19 Medical Supplies” (2020), and “Aligning Trade and Tariff Policies with Sustainable Development” (2019).
Each profile includes tariffs imposed by each economy on its imports, plus analysis of market access conditions faced by the economy regarding its major markets for exports. Tables are standardized, simplifying comparisons between countries/customs territories or between sectors. This standardization also enables comparison between bound and applied tariffs for WTO members.
World Tariff Profiles includes five main sections:
Summary Tables – summary tariff and trade statistics for all countries and territories for all products, plus a breakdown into agricultural and non-agricultural products. When applicable, calculations are based on a pre-aggregation to Harmonized System (HS) six-digit subheadings, resulting in standardization across countries and territories, increasing compatibility of comparisons across countries/territories.
Country/Territory Tariff Profiles – a page devoted to each country/territory, with statistics disaggregated by sector and duty range. In addition, this section includes information about market access conditions the country/territory faces in major export markets.
Non-Tariff Measures – statistics on select policy measures that have become increasingly important in international trade
Special Topic – unique to each edition; includes relevant statistics and analysis. Here is a table from the 2021 Special Topic document regarding non-tariff measures (NTMs):
Annexes – data sources and frequently asked questions
Access World Tariff Profiles from 2013 to present in the WTO iLibrary through the Franklin catalog.
Detailed, customizable tariff data can be viewed and downloaded from the WTO iLibrary and WTO website.
For additional assistance with tariff research, please contact a Lippincott Librarian.
Looking for materials on Diversity in the Workplace? The Lippincott Library has you covered.
Using Franklin, the library catalog, it is easy to find books and other materials on this topic.
A simple search in the Catalog for diversity and organizational change returns hundreds of titles. Use the filters on the left of the screen to limit your search. You can limit by location (Lippincott Library), Subject (organizational change) and Publication Date (latest 10 years)
Finally, bookmark the titles of interest and then email these titles to yourself.
The Conference Board provides reports, case studies and webcasts. Click on Centers and select the Human Capital Center. Further refine your results by selecting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Sage Business Cases provides case studies on a variety of topics including diversity. From the Discipline tab, select General Business and Management. From the Discipline tab on the left and open Human Resource Management and select Diversity, Equality and Inclusion. Next click on Apply Filters at the bottom left of the screen.
Use the filters on the left to limit results. Under Disciplines, unselect All and then expand Business & Management. Click on Human Resource Management. At the top of the screen sort by Most Recent to pull up more current cases.
For articles use ABI-Inform. Use a keyword search such as organizational behavior and workplace diversity. Like Franklin, there are filters on the left of the screen to help focus your search. In this case I limited to scholarly journals, subject terms and a date range. Keywords are highlighted in the results list to help with identifying relevant articles. You can select titles by using the check box nest to the title and save them to view later.
These databases are a few of the library resources to search for content on your topic. Contact me for further suggestions!
“Untangling the (Supply) Chains: Part 1” covered popular databases for supply chain information. In Part 2, we highlight resources containing reports useful for supply chain research.
The IBISWorld database is a popular resource for U.S., China, and global industry reports. Each Industry and Specialized Industry report on the IBISWorld platform includes a visual, interactive supply chain – click a buyer or supplier hyperlink on the supply chain to access a report for that industry.
The Products & Markets section of the report delves deeper into the industry supply chain, focusing on products and services, demand determinants, major markets, and international trade.
Also from IBISWorld, ProcurementIQ features U.S.-focused procurement research reports covering more than 1,000 indirect products and services, designed to help business professionals make purchasing decisions. Coverage ranges from apparel and personal care products to travel, food, lodging, and entertainment services. Use these reports to evaluate the supply market, identify suppliers, and assess supply chain risk.
EMIS features country and global industry and market research reports, many of which include supply chain analysis. For example, a recent report on the global hand sanitizer market from provider Arizton includes an overview, detailed analysis, disruptions, and risk to the supply chain as well as discussion about ingredient suppliers, accompanied by visuals:
Presented on the FitchConnect platform, this database contains country risk and industry research, Fitch Ratings data and research, fundamental data and analytics, and more. Included are Fitch Ratings articles focused on supply chains in various sectors, Country Operational Risk reports analyzing national and industry supply chain conditions, and special reports.
Having access to supply chain data and reports makes it easy to become a supply chain expert, but Lippincott Librarians are also available to help whenever needed!
From a business perspective, the global pandemic has exposed shortcomings in supply chains within and across industries throughout the world. Supply chain research reveals gaps that equate to opportunities for interested businesses. Lippincott Library offers several resources for supply chain research, each with unique features.
Capital IQ
Remotely accessible to full-time MBA students through the MBA Career Management portal and to all others through Penn Libraries, Capital IQ features current and historical business customer and supplier information for companies and their subsidiaries. Details include customer/supplier name, relationship type, primary industry, and link to the information source.
Here is a partial list of Tesla’s Recently Disclosed Suppliers from Capital IQ:
FactSet
Visit Lippincott Library to access FactSet, a powerful financial and economic database that includes current supply chain information provided by Revere. Covering more than 150,000 relationships, this data provides insight into company supply chains, key customers, suppliers, competitors, and strategic partners. Annual review based on SEC filings keeps this information updated.
FactSet Revere Supply Chain Relationships data is also available on the Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) platform. This data covers more than 25,000 publicly traded companies around the world and select subsidiaries, representing more than 144,000 business relationships, with historical data back to 2003.
Panjiva
Panjiva is a global supply chain intelligence database containing eight million companies and more than one billion shipment records, with more than 200 countries represented. Included transactional and macro data cover 35% and 95% of global trade flows, respectively. Information is sourced from bill of lading shipment records from U.S Customs and Border Protection, credit information providers, compliance organizations, trade associations, and more. Current and historical information is available.
Search for a company or product name and filter to buyers, suppliers, or shipments, or search product trends. Buyer and Supplier profiles feature top products, countries, shipment records, trading partners, ports and carriers, where applicable, and an Activity Feed featuring new supply chain activity. Corporate hierarchy and contact information are also provided.
To create a Trend report, select a country/region, trade direction (import or export), and a product’s Harmonized System (HS) code.
Use the Macro tool to analyze trade flows of products between countries. Panjiva Macro data is sourced from UN Comtrade, which obtains the data from each country’s government.
Bloomberg
Bloomberg makes it possible to analyze current and historical supply chain relationships for approximately 23,000 public companies and 96,000 private companies worldwide, representing 900,000 global supply chain relationships.
Data come from public sources including company reports, conference call transcripts, and regulatory filings, as well as customers and suppliers. This bi-directional data and estimates from industry analysts quantify company exposures from both production and demand sides of the supply chain. The resulting 200,000 quantified supplier-customer relationships include both revenue and cost percentages and links to company filings.
Use the function SPLC to access and analyze supply chain data on the Bloomberg Terminal. Below is an analysis of absolute projected sales growth for companies in Ford Motor Company’s supply chain:
For additional recommendations, refer to our Business FAQ “Where can I find information on a company’s supply chain management?” or contact a Lippincott Librarian.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this post highlighting reports useful for supply chain research.
You downloaded data files, or maybe you compiled them yourself. How will you get those data into R?
R offers built-in functions that let you access either delimited (where a certain character separates values) or fixed-width (where each column uses a certain number of characters) files. Like other popular statistical packages, R even supports its own data file format. Let’s explore some frequently-used functions.
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Datapoints: A blog from the Lippincott Library of the Wharton School of Business 