Important financial data now in the hands of Danish economists

Funding of DKK 10 million ensures access to databases containing important financial data

Financial researchers at CBS, Aarhus University, University of Southern Denmark and University of Copenhagen have to be able to compete internationally. Such were the words of the Danish Center for Accounting and Finance (D-CAF) when they applied for funding of Danish participation in a reputable international research infrastructure in the field of finance.

At the end of December, the Center received funding from the National Programme for Research Infrastructure amounting to DKK 10 million. The funding is to strengthen the quality of Danish research in the fields of finance, accounting and quantitative economics as well as attract foreign researchers and PhD fellows to Denmark.

- It is essential to Danish research on financial markets to become part of this research infrastructure. Without access to this data, it is difficult for us to compete at international level, to publish articles in A journals and to attract foreign researchers, explains Professor David Lando, Department of Finance at CBS and member of D-CAF.

- When we recruit new staff members on the international labour market, the candidates enquire as to whether we have access to this data. The reason why a few of CBS’s PhD graduates in finance have managed to be invited for interviews at some of the world’s leading business schools is that they have had the opportunity to work with this data.

The data primarily consists of financial accounting information as well as information on share prices, bonds, derivates, etc.

Danish Center for Accounting and Finance has been established by CBS, Aarhus University, University of Southern Denmark and University of Copenhagen. It is a virtual research centre dealing with accounting and finance. 50 researchers from the four universities are attached to the centre, as are a number of foreign universities. The funding is to be used for establishing the new data centre Danish Data Center for Accounting and Finance (D-DCAF), which will be a subsidiary of D-CAF.