The Journal of Finance publishes leading research across all the major fields of finance. It is one of the most widely cited journals in academic finance, and in all of economics. Each of the six issues per year reaches over 8,000 academics, finance professionals, libraries, and government and financial institutions around the world. The journal is the official publication of The American Finance Association, the premier academic organization devoted to the study and promotion of knowledge about financial economics.
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Sample‐Dependent Results Using Accounting and Market Data: Some Evidence
Published: 09/01/1986 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1986.tb04548.x
ROLF W. BANZ, WILLIAM J. BREEN
Studies relating accounting and price data often use the COMPUSTAT or related PDE data base as the source for the accounting data. This practice may introduce a look‐ahead bias and an ex‐post‐selection bias into the study. We examine this problem by comparing results from the standard COMPUSTAT data base with those from a data base which suffers from neither bias. We find that rates of return from portfolios chosen on the basis of accounting data from the two data bases differ significantly. Further, we find that these differences imply different conclusions when we test a specific hypothesis relating accounting and price data. Finally, we propose a number of remedies which may reduce the bias when the standard COMPUSTAT data base is used.