Database Tutorials: WRDS (Wharton Research Data Services)

Registering to use WRDS

Before you can use WRDS, you must register for a username and password.

A note for undergraduates - undergraduates are permitted to use WRDS for research, including dissertations, but there is not an option for undergraduates in the registration process.  Under 'Affiliation With Institution' undergraduates should select 'Masters student'.

How to download data from WRDS

An important feature of WRDS is that most datasets can be downloaded using the same simple interface.  This video shows an example of how to download data from the CRSP dataset (US stock prices).

More help from WRDS

When you are logged in to WRDS, you will be able to access help information by clicking on the Support tab, top right. WRDS offers an email help service that you can use by clicking on Support and then ‘Contact WRDS Support’.

The University has access to some, but not all, WRDS datasets.  We subscribe to some datasets and others are available as part of WRDS. 

Our access includes:

• Compustat - Capital IQ (US company fundamentals/accounts from 1950 onwards, covers all public companies and large private companies(i.e. private companies required to file with SEC like public companies))
• Compustat - Capital IQ, Executive Compensation - Execucomp (governance data on compensation for S&P500 from 1992 and S&P1500 from 1994 onwards - also includes some companies formerly in S&P1500)
• CRSP (US stock price data from 1925 onwards)
• Thomson Reuters, Institutional (13f) Holdings (institutional ownership reported to SEC, US only, 1980 onwards)
• Thomson Reuters, Mutual Fund Holdings (institutional ownership of mutual funds that report to SEC (USA) and 3000 global funds, 1979 onwards)

You can check the full list of available datasets by logging in to WRDS. 

How to check what's available to us [VIDEO]

How to identify relevant datasets [VIDEO]