Companies and Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading

Today Bas de Groot, a student at the Vrije Universiteit, gave me a great tip for when you are doing research on companies & greenhouse gas emissions. In January 2005 the European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading System (EU ETS) was in operation. Allowances traded in the EU ETS are not printed but held in accounts in electronic registries set up by Member States. The registries system keeps track of the ownership of allowances in the same way as a banking system keeps track of the ownership of money. These registries are overseen by a Central Administrator at EU level in the Community independent transaction log. The website offers information as well as links to the member registries. In these registries you can find out exactly which companies in Europe are registered and for which installations.

Author information: LinkedIn

04:52 PM - 23 June 2010

Geographical presentation of data

Gapminder World is a nice new free tool which allows you to view data from many organisations on a geopgraphical World map. There is the option to view 400+ datasets from organizations like the International Labour Organization, World Health Organization, World Development Indicators and the OECD. On the website you can also watch demonstrations and download the data itself. The Gapminder World tool is also available for offline use as a desktop tool.

In total Gapminder World offers 200 indicators of Global development. More data may be added and become available through Gapminder World. You can also have your own dataset added if it conforms to the following requirements:

• That the data has documented sources and methods of compilation.
• That the time series are indicators for countries and territories of the world.
• That the time series extend at least over 5 years.

06:27 PM - 31 May 2010

Socially Responsible Investment

Socially Responsible (or Sustainable) Investment has become more popular over the past few years. A website which offers much information on the subject is the Eurosif website. Eurosif, European Social Investment Forum, was created in 2001 to specifically cover socially responsible investment issues at the European level.

The Eurosif website offers many free publications and reports. It also has a specific free information tool called the 'SRI Funds Service'. Through the tool it is possible to get information on performance and risk measures on European SRI Funds. The fund’s financial information is sourced from Morningstar Europe.

The Fund selector allows you to easily use search criteria to find the fund types you are interested in. The selector will then present a list of the funds that match your criteria. At the list level you get information in separate tabs on Returns and Ratings risk. After selecting one of the funds you get more details on this fund including a graph of its performance compared to an index it is part of.

If you need the raw data (like the daily price) over a period of time it is not possible to download that information at the Eurosif website. Datastream, however, is a possible source to get the raw data. You can look up the funds by name through the data category Unit Trusts. After finding and selecting the funds you need it is possible to download the data.

Author information: LinkedIn

02:47 PM - 26 May 2010

Company overview files updates

Today I have updated two files to make sure they contain up-to-date information. The general file on Company Identifiers & Databases has been updated and the file on the WorldScope coverage:

Company Identifiers & Databases
This file offers an overview of some of the most important financial databases and which company or security identifiers they use. Some of the identifiers can be used to find information in these databases. In some cases you can only download this type of information. View the file.

WorldScope
According to the newsletters of Datastream: total companies covered is 60119 of which 37023 are active and 23096 inactive companies in 73 countries. The database is updated each month. The latest update now includes company reports for the following newly added nations: Bulgaria (1), Croatia (10), Lebanon (6), Mauritius (3) and Tunisia (5). View the file.

Author information: LinkedIn

11:57 AM - 16 April 2010

Worldscope company data

Worldscope is an international database containing financial profiles, fundamental analysis, and stock performance data. Worldscope takes into consideration the variety of accounting conventions now in use worldwide and presents more than 6,000 data variables in a reformatted design that facilitates comparisons between companies within and across national boundaries. Worldscope data variables include financial variables extracted from source documents, data items computed from fundamental variables, general corporate data, including a brief business description, officers, segment data, major shareholders and auditor information, and accounting data items on a company-specific basis.

For an overview of the number of companies covered by country I have created an Excel file which is available here.

Worldscope is available through (at least) the following two database suppliers:

• LexisNexis:
  The Online help information lists the following: total companies covered is +28,000 active and inactive companies in 54 companies. I called the LexisNexis helpdesk today to ask if this was still information was still current. Unfortunately nobody could tell me if the number of companies covered matches that of Datastream. The frequency of the updates is unclear. Each report covers the last reported 3 years of company data. You can download complete reports or parts of the financial data in excel for each separate report.
  
• Datastream:
  According to the newsletters of Datastream: total companies covered is 59211 of which 36876 are active and 22849 inactive companies in 68 countries. The database is updated each month. 1850 data items from the Worldscope database are covered. Much of the data for the companies can be downloaded to Excel using a single search request. Worldscope has data that for some companies goes back 20 years.

Author information: LinkedIn

02:48 PM - 23 December 2009